WARREN MAROON

(b. 1985 Cape Town, South Africa)

‘My practice focuses on my lived experience growing up on the Cape Flats. The accumulation of events I have experienced and continue to experience as a person of colour in Cape Town reveals the unequal disposition so many experience as “normal life”. I create sculptural artworks using found objects and rearranging their context to tell these stories.’

Warren Maroon grew up in Mitchell’s Plain on the Cape Flats, an area most commonly associated with gangsterism, drugs and violence. Being exposed to harsh realities from an early age, he took to art as a way to escape. In 2011 he graduated from the Ruth Prowse School of Fine Art (Cape Town) with a Diploma in Fine Art, but it was only in 2018 that he found his voice as a sculptor. Maroon, inspired by an arte povera aesthetic, creates work using mostly found objects to communicate aspects of his lived experience.

A common thread through his work is the idealization of gangs and violence that stems from the varied traumas faced by youth of lower socio-economic status communities, and the influence media has in creating and reinforcing a narrative that glorifies gang culture.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023

Well, there goes that dream, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2022

Reverence, Church Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

A Quiet Violence, CUBICLE Series, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020

Living in a Box, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Church Projects & Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2023

The Objects, curated by Sean O’Toole, Under Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Church Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

The Invisible Thread, curated by Swain Hoogervorst, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2022

Ex Libris, curated by Barbara Wildenboer, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Seduction, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021

In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2020

Kwaai Vol. 2, Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa