BARBARA WILDENBOER

(b. 1973 Pretoria, South Africa)

 

Barbara Wildenboer is a South African artist who uses various mediums to create text-based works with a focus on early forms of ‘writing’ and storytelling. Her work focuses on language, typography and the elements of writing in a non-linear manner that offers a different reading of earlier writings.

Her trademark ‘altered books’ function as narrative clues, intertexts or ‘subtitles’ accompanying the other works. Using an approach of interdisciplinary curiosity she makes reference to various subject matter such as ancient history, comparative mythology and religion, archaeology ,fractal geometry and psychoanalysis. The altered book series Library of the Infinitesimally Small and Unimaginable Large (2011-present) was inspired by a short story by the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges titled The Library of Babel. In this large-scale ongoing project she uses the library as a metaphor for the universe.

Wildenboer lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, and is represented by galleries in Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Lisbon and Luanda and Morocco. In 2007 she obtained a Masters in Fine Art (cum laude) from the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town. The title of her Master’s thesis was’ Present Absence / Absent Presence’, and the research was concerned with aspects of melancholy, loss and longing as is embodied by the photographic medium. Before that she completed a BA(Ed) with majors in English literature, Psychology and Pedagogics at the University of Pretoria in 1996, followed by a Bachelor of Visual Arts from UNISA in 2003. From 2009-2016 she was working as the head of the Photography Department at the CityVarsity College of Creative Arts, where she lectured Theory & Discourse and History of Photography.

In 2011 she was nominated and subsequently selected as one of the top 20 finalists for the Sovereign African Arts Award, for which she received the Public Choice Prize. She has been awarded several international residencies such as the Darat al Funun exchange residency / Unesco-Aschberg (Amman, Jordan 2006), the Al Mahatta residency (Birzeit, Palestine 2009) and the Red De Residencias Artisticas Local (Bogotá, Colombia 2011), the Rimbun Dahan artist residency (Penang, Malaysia 2013), L'Atelier Sur Seine (Fontainebleau, France 2017), Hannacc (Barcelona, Spain 2018) L’Air Arts, Paris (2022), Art Omi residency (2024) and Le Jardin Rouge at the Montresso Foundation (Marrakech, Morocco 2022/23/24/25).

 

EDUCATION

2007 Master of Fine Art (with distinction), Michaelis School of Fine Art, South Africa

2003 Bachelor of Visual Arts, UNISA, South Africa

1996 BA (Ed) with majors in English literature, Psychology and Pedagogics, University of Pretoria

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

Articulations, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2023

BABEL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022

LOOT, This is Not a White Cube Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal

2020

A Retrospective, KKNK (Klein Karoo National Arts Festival) Festival Artist, South Africa

SUPER/NATURAL, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019

Folly, Everard Read, London, UK

2018

Eros / Thanatos, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017

The Invisible Gardener, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2016

Mythematics, MContemporary Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2015

Something Rather Than Nothing, The Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2014

The Lotus Eaters, The Reservoir Gallery, Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, North West University Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2013

Disjecta Membra, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong

2012

Canaries in the coalmine, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town and Aardklop, Potchefstroom

2011

Library of the infinitesimally small and unimaginably large, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2008

Present Absence/Absent Presence, ErdmannContemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

Vanitas, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2006

Everyday Alchemy, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

 

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

Art Paris, with Montresso Foundation, Paris, France

2024

Inner Sanctum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

IMAGOS, duo with French-Moroccan poet and photographer Mouna Saboni, Galerie des Residences, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco

AKAA, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Paris France

2023

What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Moving Art, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE

2023

 

What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Moving Art, XVA Gallery, Dubai, UAE

Collide, Featherstone Centre for the Arts, Massachusetts, USA

Chimère, Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France

2022

 

EX LIBRIS, group show, Everard Read at Leeu Estates, Franschhoek, South Africa

FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

AKAA Fair, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Paris, France

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

(Im)materiality, THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Lisbon and Centro de Artes Agueda, Portugal

2021    

Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

World Filled, Golubitskoe Foundation, Taman Peninsula, Russia

Paper Art 2021, CODA, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK

The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA. 

Oasis, 25th anniversary exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

AKAA Fair, with THIS IS NOT A WHITE CUBE, Paris France

2020

 

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Homework, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Either the world is crowded with garbage or our memories, Golubitskoe Art Foundation, Golubitskaya, RussiaThe Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

2019

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Seattle Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, Seattle, USA

14th Annual Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, California, USA

2018

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017

2017-20 Cut Up /Cut Out, travelling museum exhibition, Bellevue Arts Museum, WA; Huntsville Museum of Art, AL; Pensacola Museum of Art, FL; Ellen Noël Art Museum, Odessa, TX; Foosaner Art Museum, Melbourne, FL; Woodson Art Museum, Wausau, WI, USA

 

Booknesses: South African Artists’ Books, FADA Gallery, part of the BOOKNESSESS COLLOQUIUM, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

By the Book, Kaller Fine Arts, Washington DC, USA

Reality Check, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Africa Fair, Cape Town, South Africa

2016

 

This is Not a Book, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, California, USA

Surface and Subtext, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Barnard Gallery, South Africa

The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

Lush, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Twelve Days, The Cat Street Gallery, Sheung Wan

artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

Turbine Art Fair, with Dead Bunny Society, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015/6

Map of the New Art, Imago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection, Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy and New York, USA

2015

Ten Years of Artists Books, Brooklyn Public Library, New York, USA

Picture & Paper, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

The Spiritual in the Material, Lizamore and Associates Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Art of the Book, The Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

The Artist as Author, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudshoorn, Karoo, South Africa

Empire, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

Art Central Fair, with Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong

2014

 

Butterflies in my Stomach, XVA Gallery, Al Fahidi, Dubai, UAE

artMRKT International Art Fair, with Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

The Art of the Book, Seager Gray Gallery, San Francisco, USA

Art Taipei, with Cat Street Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

Singapore Art Fair, with Cat Street Gallery, Singapore

2013

Crossing the Divide, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

Wonder Works, The Space, Hong Kong

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa

Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012

Conversations, Sydney, Australia

Clover Aardklop Arts Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa

Art International Zurich, Switzerland

2011

Implemented Environments, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa

2010

Return to the Land, Klein Karoo Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

Es(Cape), Pretoria Kunsvereniging, Pretoria, South Africa

Matters Conceptually/Conceptual Matters, Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

Reading between the lines, US Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2009

3d Riwaq Biennale, Birzeit, Palestine

2008/9

Construct: Beyond the Documentary Photograph (travelling exhibition) Unisa Gallery, Pretoria, KZN Gallery, Durban, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Gallery, Port Elizabeth, Grahamstown Art Festival, Goethe Institute, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008

Print 08: Myth, Memory and the Archive, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Woodstock, South Africa

2007

Come, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa

Greenhouse, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Lourensford estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Critic and Committee’s Choice, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

 

 

RESIDENCIES/AWARDS

2024

Art Omi, New York, USA

Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco

2023

Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux, France

Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco 

2022

Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco 

2021

Modern Art Projects, South Africa

2016

L’Atelier Sur Seine residency, (Fontainebleau, Paris)

2013

Rimbun Dahan residency, Penang, Malaysia

2011

Red De Residencias Artísticas Local at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, (Bogotá, Colombia)

Public Vote Prize, Sovereign African Arts Award 

2009

Al Mahatta residency (Palestine)

2006

Unesco-Aschberg residency (Jordan)

MacIver Scholarship

2005/6

KW Johnstone Scholarship

2005/6

Jules Kramer Award

2005/6

Harry Crossley Scholarship

2003 

BRETT KEBBLE ART AWARD, CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

2002 

Winner, Vuleka New Signatures, South Africa

2000 

M-WEB NEW SIGNATURES, South Africa

 

COLLECTIONS

Art Omi collection, New York.

Fondation Blachere, Bonnieux.

Fondation H, Antananarive.

Francis Greenberger collection, New York.

Hollard, Johannesburg.

Khalid Shoman Foundation, Amman.

Montresso Foundation, Marrakech.

Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein.

Sanlam Art Collection, Cape Town.

Spier Art Collection, Cape Town.

SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATION & COLLABORATIONS

2024

IMAGOS, Duo with French-Moroccan poet and photographer Mouna Saboni, Galerie des Residences, Montresso Art Foundation, Marrakech, Morocco

2023

The Conference of the birds, site-specific collage installation, Marrakech, Morocco

Museum of Shadows, site-specific collage installation, Marrakech, Morocco

2016

Collaboration with 50ty50ty prints, Cape Town, South Africa

2015

DEKOR-Z Collaborative site specific installation with Liza Grobler, South Africa

2013

Chance Favours the Connected Mind Collaborative installation with Liza Grobler, South Africa

2009

Mother Tongue. Site specific installation at the Birzeit Conservatory, Palestine

2008

Public Memorial for Olive Schreiner, Kalk Bay, South Africa

2006

Epitaph, (Collaboration with Sima Zereikat), Cave, Darat al Funun, Amman, Jordan

2004

Spier Sculpture Biennale, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa