BIOGRAPHY
(b. 1975, Cape Town, South Africa)
(b. 1975 Cape Town, South Africa)
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
2023
Nightshade, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2021
The Great Lulllllll, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
The Heart Has Many Rooms, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
Bend to Her Will, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Johannesburg & Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Atopia, NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa
2013
Famila Obscura, Brundyn+, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
Some Dance to Remember Some Dance to Forget, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2009
Graceland, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008
Sub Rosa, Joäo Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2007
Perfectly Still, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
Blues and Greys, Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2005
Hoogwater/High Tide, KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Fools Gold, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
2003
Blank, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2001
From a Netherworld, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2000
Northern Ladies, Art Konsult, New Delhi, India
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2023
Bitches Brew, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
If you look hard enough, you can see our future, African American Museum, Dallas, USA
2021
Myths, Masters, Monsters & Masterpieces, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Between Strangers, Nuweland Gallery, Netherlands
RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa
House Party, The Fourth, Cape Town, South Africa
2020
In Conversation, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
MERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMER, curated by Kendell Geers, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria
2018
In the Forest of the Night, Everard Read, Johannesburg South Africa
2017
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
The Future is Female, 21C Museum Hotels, Louisville, USA
2016
Nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Transformation, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Foreign Bodie, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
20 Years of Democracy, Appalachian State University, North Carolina, USA
2012
Paint I, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Seeing Eye, Brundyn +, Cape Town, South Africa
Positive Tension, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
Alptraum, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin, Germany
2010
Twenty, Contemporary Public Sculpture, Nirox, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
20 Artists06, Contemporary Printing, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2005
Sweet Nothings, New Photographic Work, Bell-Roberts, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
2nd Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch, South Africa
40 Years, University of Stellenbosch, Sasol Art Museum, South Africa
2003
ABSA L'Atelier, Johannesburg, South Africa
YDESIRE, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa
Brett Kebble Art Awards, Cape Town, South Africa
Picnic, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2002
Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Jan Marais Nature Reserve, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2001 Aarsel/Waver, KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Micro/Macro, South African Printmakers at Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, 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