BIOGRAPHY
(b. 1975, Cape Town, South Africa)
BIOGRAPHY
Sanell Aggenbach’s work deals primarily with the intersection of history and private narratives by considering the process of recall and interpretation. Her work displays an accomplished virtuosity as she moves comfortably between the various disciplines of painting, printmaking and sculpture.
Since 2003, Aggenbach has focused mainly on subverted feminine tropes and feminist themes. In her most recent solo exhibition, Bend to Her Will, she subtly and mischievously reframed the hobbyist art of flower arranging by appropriating the traditionally masculine art of Japanese Ikebana. Her sculptural work, primarily in bronze, parody Western masterpieces from Michelangelo, Henry Moore, and Warhol to Pierneef and take a refreshing look at these pivotal references from a woman’s perspective.
Born in Cape Town in 1975, Aggenbach currently lives and works in Woodstock, Cape Town. Her explorative work has secured her many achievements including winning the Absa L’Atelier Award in 2003. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including Sasol, Absa, Spier, SABC, Red Bull (Austria), the South African National Gallery, 21C Museum in Kentucky (USA) and Anglo Gold.
“My earlier works relied heavily on processing found imagery, rethinking associations and creating new fictions. These works were often an amalgamation of historic references with private narratives and forms part of a process of investigating pathologies and deconstructing the past. My primary intention is to construct subtle paradoxes by introducing a quite humour, either formally or materially.”
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
The Heart Has Many Rooms, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
2017
Bend To Her Will - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Johannesburg
Bend to Her Will - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2015
Atopia, NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom
2013
Famila Obscura, Brundyn+, Cape Town
2011
Some Dance to Remember Some Dance to Forget, Blank Projects, Cape Town
2009
Graceland, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg
2008
Sub Rosa, Joäo Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town
2007
Perfectly Still, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg
2006
Blues and Greys, Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg
2005
Hoogwater/High Tide, KKNK, Oudtshoorn
Fools Gold, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town
2003
Blank, AVA Gallery, Cape Town
2001
From a Netherworld, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2000
Northern Ladies, Art Konsult, New Delhi, India
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
In The Forests of the Night, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
2017
Cape Town Art Fair 2017, Cape Town
The Future Is Female, 21c museum hotels, Louisville, USA
2016
Nano, Barnard gallery, Cape Town
Transformation, Southern Guild, Cape Town
2015
Foreign Bodies - whatiftheworld, Cape Town
2014
20 years of democracy, Appalachian state university, North Carolina
2012
Paint I, Smac Gallery, Cape Town
Seeing Eye, Brundyn +, Cape Town
Positive Tension - Whatiftheworld, Cape Town
2011
Alptraum, Deutscher Kuenstlerbund, Berlin, Germany
2010
Twenty, Contemporary Public Sculpture, Nirox, Johannesburg
2006
20 Artists06, Contemporary Printing, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2005
Sweet Nothings, New Photographic Work, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2004
2nd Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch
40 Years, University Of Stellenbosch, Sasol Art Museum
2003
Absa L'atelier, Johannesburg
Ydesire, Castle Of Good Hope, Cape Town
Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town
Picnic, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2002
Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Jan Marais Nature Reserve, Stellenbosch
2001
Aarsel/Waver, Kknk, Oudtshoorn
Micro/Macro, South African Printmakers At Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Other
2015
Aardklop Festival artist
2009
Ampersand fellowship, New York
2005
Curator: ‘Sweet Nothings’, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2005
Nominated for a Kanna Award, KKNK
2003
Winner of the 2003 ABSA L’Atelier
1999
Selected for the UNESCO-Aschberg Residency programme, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town Absa Collection Anglo Gold South Africa Hollard Collection Sasol Collection Spier Collection Didata SABC Labour 24 Pty Ltd Red Bull Collection, Salzburg, Austria New Church Museum 21C Museum in Kentucky
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
2013
Familia Obscura 2009
Graceland Catalogue 2007
Turbulence, Hangar-7, Austria 2007
Sanell Aggenbach Catalogue 2007
Artinvestor, Germany 2007
Art South Africa: Vol. 5, Issue 04; Page 82 (Review) 2005
Cape Town Month of Photography 2004
2nd Spier Sculpture Biennale Catalogue 2004
Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch 2003
ABSA L’Atelier 2003
Art South Africa: Vol. 02, Issue 01; Page 14 (Review) 2002
Spier Sculpture Biennale Catalogue
