HANIEN CONRADIE

(b. 1972 Cape Town, South Africa)

In her creative practice, South African artist Hanien Conradie  investigates sense of place and belonging by examining human-nature relationships. She is interested in tracking the various paths that have led to human alienation from the natural world in the West. Her aim is to discover new ways of relating to natural places, to other human beings and to herself through her work.  

Conradie’s education includes degrees in both architecture and fine arts. In 2012, she graduated (with distinction) with a Masters of Fine Art (2015) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (UCT), with an enquiry based on ecology and painting. Conradie has since participated in numerous ecological exhibitions in Southern Africa, Europe and the USA. 

Conradie is also an active contributor to interdisciplinary symposiums, public discussions, websites and artists’ residencies where ecological research is conducted through creative practice. She delivered a paper titled The Voice of Water: Resounding a Silenced River at the Liquidscapes Creative Summit (2018, Dartington Estate, UK). In 2018 she participated in The Ephemeral River, the UK portion of the Global Nomadic Art Project, a 7-year project that supports eco-artists to travel across continents to re-activate the public’s awareness and responsibility towards the biosphere. Here she produced her seminal performance piece Dart, in collaboration with earth-artist Margaret Le Jeune (USA). A still of this film was exhibited on a billboard in New York City as part of a group show titled, I am Water, produced by SaveArtSpace in 2021.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021    Spoorloos, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019    Raaswater, Cubicle Series, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2018    Ntlhantle: In the Direction of Beauty, Linnaeus Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

The Other’s Warmth, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Animal Power!, Brussels Art Week, Montoro12 Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium

A Certain Place, curated by Julia Meintjies, Tokara, South Africa

2022

Earth Power!, Montoro12 Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium

1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Montoro12 Contemporary, London, UK

Ebb,  Daor Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

Nature/Us, GalleryOne11, Cape Town, South Africa