(b. 1987, Cape Town, South Africa)

Lady Skollie – aka Laura Windvogel – lives, works, performs and hustles for centre stage in Johannesburg, South Africa, with storytelling, ink, watercolour, crayon and woodcut printing as her weapons of choice. She describes her own work as ‘fire, ritual, San’, referring to the San indigenous people of southern Africa, who have lived in the region for thousands of years and to whom she connects the self-identifying ‘coloured’ community of South Africa – a multiracial group native to the area and distinct from the ‘Black’ and ‘white’ population.

Alive with emotional, political, sexual turmoil and loud questioning voices, Lady Skollie’s works depict relationships between godlike figures and flawed mortals singing, grunting, reflecting, gushing. Her characters writhe, twist and dance, queue and hold each other up whether on paper, architecture, or on the new coin that the artist designed to commemorate 25 years of constitutional democracy in South Africa.

The moniker ‘Skollie’ is a widely-used derogatory term to describe a shady character, historically used in South Africa when a person of colour was in a place deemed unsuitable by the white populace. Lady Skollie embraces this shadiness, combining it with an interplay of masculine and feminine energies, creating a space where the disparate parts of her personality are reconciled. The artist explains: ‘I just like having an alias. You feel like you can take more risks under a pseudonym… there is a psychology behind aliases, a kind of strength that they give you.’

The artist’s work has been exhibited widely at galleries, community spaces and art fairs across South Africa as well as in the UK, Europe and the USA. In 2017, along with Tschabalala Self and Abe Odedina, the artist contributed artwork for the stage design of a gala performance of The Children’s Monologues, a charitable event directed by Danny Boyle and held at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Lady Skollie’s persona also exists outside of the art world circuit appearing on the covers of lifestyle and fashion magazines, and her position as an influencer in South Africa is bolstered by her enthusiastic use of Instagram and connections to brand culture. She has been featured on BBC Africa and CNN International on African Voices, as well as on the BBC World Service’s online and radio series In the Studio. She was included in the 2018 edition of OkayAfrica’s 100 Women, an annual list which honours women in different fields for their achievements and influence.

After winning the 2020 FNB Art Prize, Lady Skollie won the 2022 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts. One of the most prestigious prizes offered to South African artists under the age of 35, winners are celebrated as national treasures, and many have gone on to achieve international acclaim. Previous winners include William Kentridge, Brett Murray, Mmakgabo Helen Sebidi, and Blessing Ngobeni among others.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2026 Sour Grapes, Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA

            Art Pairs, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2025 Madi Madi Madi, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2024 Groot Gat, Standard Bank Young Artist Award exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, SA

2023 Groot Gat, Standard Bank Young Artist Award travelling exhibition, SA

2021 A Prediction, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2020 Bound, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

2019 Good & Evil, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

            Weakest Link, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

            Solo booth at Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

2017 Lust Politics, Tyburn Gallery, London, UK

            Fire with Fire, solo booth at FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA

            Mating Dance, solo booth at AKAA Art Fair, Paris, France

            Hottentot $kollie, Tomorrows/Today, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, SA

2015 One-Night, WorldArt Gallery, Cape Town, SA

            Vroeg Ryp, Vroeg Vrot, RAMP Project, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, SA

2014 Skattie Celebrates Series, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, SA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024 Inner Sanctum, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

            Winter Collection, Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA

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

            EXPO CHICAGO, with Everard Read, Chicago, USA

2023 What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA

            Bitches Brew, Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

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

2022 Seduction, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

            FNB Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

            1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Everard Read, Paris, France

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

            Things I’d Like to Remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, SA

            Ancestors and Dreams, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

2021 Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, SA

            Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK

            In Conversation, Everard Read CIRCA, Cape Town

            Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

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

2020 Against Interpretation, Everard Read, London, UK

            Staring Straight to the Future, online exhibition, Everard Read, SA & UK

            Masterpiece online, with Everard Read, London, UK

2019 CONTEXT Art Miami, with Everard Read, Miami, USA

            Art Joburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, SA

2018 Old Masters / New Realities: Gerard Sekoto x Lady Skollie, TMRW Gallery, Johannesburg, SA

            This Is the Gallery and the Gallery Is Many Things X at Eastside Projects, Birmingham, UK

            Close: Proximity, Intimacy, Tension, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, SA

            Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Malibu, CA, USA

            Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Tyburn Gallery, Cape Town, SA

2016 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Tyburn Gallery, London, UK

            SEX, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, SA

AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

2022 Standard Bank Young Artist Award (Visual Arts)

2020 10th Annual FNB Art Prize

2019 GQ Woman of the Year Award

            Windvogel was commissioned to design the new R5 coin to commemorate 25 years of constitutional democracy in South Africa. The coin is currently in circulation throughout South Africa.