BRONWYN LACE

(b.1980, Francistown, Botswana)

An essential component of my practice involves creating site-specific installations with found, recycled and repurposed elements. The pieces are built in situ, responding to the context of the site with repetitive weaving, tying and threading, line by line, between surfaces. This time-based and repetitive process helps me to immerse myself physically within a context so that I may respond to all its elements specifically. 

I’m particularly interested in how artworks as spaces relate to the proportions of the human body. I’m interested in creating artworks that employ beauty as an initial tool to create immersive bodily experiences. I believe that when we are fully absorbed by an artwork we have the capacity to relate to and learn from it in a more complete way. 

I have long been a collector of things. From found dead insects to broken stained glass to obsolete encyclopaedia. I keep these objects with me until the right time to process them presents itself. I then look to existing, often traditional crafting methods, from weaving, beading and embroidery to folding origami. I believe that the repetitive act of making allows for a meditation with the material, the space and finally the artwork. 

The manner in which I choose to respond has to be informed by all aspects of the site. This takes in to account everything from the way in which natural and artificial light shifts the space to who occupies the space over the course of a day. I view all elements as collaborators in the making of an artwork. 

Lace, who was born in Francistown, Botswana, in 1980, works primarily in site specific installation, sculpture and performance and participates in national and international projects focusing on the relationships between art and other fields, including Physics, museum practice and education. An important element of Lace’s practice involves creating site-specific installations with found, recycled and repurposed elements. The pieces are built in situ, often with intricate threading and weaving. Light is a central component to all of Lace’s work. Through this process-driven practice, she creates architectural three-dimensional and often-interactive artworks, containing material from the world around us such as swarms of fishing flies, rearranged animal skeletons or thousands of shards of shattered stained glass. 

In collaboration with Marcus Neustetter, Lace has initiated various community and land art projects in small towns within South Africa. From 2006-2010, she ran the About Art education and exhibition programme at The Bag Factory Artists' Studios. She currently sits on the board of the David and Goliath Foundation and is an assistant to the curator of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) art collection. In addition, Lace has recently completed a book and film related to her collaborative project 'Sutherland Reflections' with Africa meets Africa, an organisation that produces illustrated educator’s resource books, films and classroom learning materials. In 2009 and 2010 she was listed in the Mail and Guardian as one of the top 200 Young South Africans. Lace completed a BAFA in 2004 from the University of Witwatersrand.

 
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017
Bred in the Bone, solo exhibition at CIRCA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Response, two person show with Neels Coetzee’s CRUCIBLE, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014
Teeming - Solo Exhibition at Speke Photographic, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013
Resuscitate -Solo Exhibition at Nirox Project Space, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012
A Tendency Towards Complexity - Solo Exhibition at CIRCA on Jellico, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sutherland Reflections, Collaborative Exhibition with Marcus Neustetter, Speke Photographic, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010
En Masse, Collaborative Project and Exhibition with Anthea Moys, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
Sutherland Reflected, Collaborative Exhibition with Marcus Neustetter, Goethe on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
Unit for Measure, with Vaughn Sadie at Sci-Bono Discovery Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008
Negentrophy (land art piece), Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007
The Bell Shaped Curve, Durban University of Technology Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2006
77/21, Parking Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Irrational, Outlet gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
1.618, Young Artists Project, KZNSA gallery, Durban, South Africa 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2017
Summer Exhibition, Group show at Everard Read, London, UK
southern abstraction, CIRCA Gallery Group exhibition, London ,UK

2016
Opening Exhibition, CIRCA Gallery Group exhibition, London, UK

2015
Homage, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
FNB Jobrug Art Fair, Eveard Read Booth, Johannesburg, South Africa
Drawing, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa
Empire, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

2013
Southern Guild, MOAD, Johannesburg, South Africa
After the Rainbow Nation, curated by Mary Jane Darrol, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

2012
Third Paradise - First Worldwide Day of Rebirth, Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto South African participation: Nirox
Foundation, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa
Southern Guild, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011
Living as Form, Creative Time Institute, New York, USA
Horse: multiple views on a singular beast, Everard Read, Curated by Ricky Burnett, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010
Reasons to Live in a Small Town, Goethe on Main, curated by VANSA, Johannesburg, South Africa
Collaborations/Articulations,  FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, curated by Brendan Gray, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012, Space Gallery, Rosebank, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009
(No)thing, UCA gallery, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
Adding Subtractions, The Bag Factory, curated by Daniella Geo of Brazil, Johannesburg, South Africa
Double Body,  FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, curated by Anthea Buys, Johannesburg, South Africa
Oudtshoorn Trace, ABSA KKNK Festival, in collaboration with Marcus Neustetter and curated by Johan Myburgh, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Social Pattern, AVA Gallery, curated by Kirsty Cockerill, Cape Town, South Africa

2008
Traces, Nirox Foundation, a collaborative performance and installation with Marcus Neustetter, commissioned by VISI magazine, The Cradle of Humankind, South Africa
The Fun House, The Bag Factory, a collaborative performance piece with musicians Phanuel Masike and Stompie Selibe, Johannesburg, South Africa
Trajectory, The Snowflake Building, Aardklop, South Africa
Rites of Passage/Rites of Fealty, A group show of performance artists, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa
Aftermath, Art Extra, a group show curated by David Brodie, Johannesburg, South Africa
Youth (The Inner Reflection), show featuring artists from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique dealing with themes around youth, Muvart Gallery, Maputo, Mozambique

2007
Away, group show of artists featured in the A Look Away Publication, Northern Cape, South Africa
Re-Action, group show of performance artists, The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa
Love You Positive or Negative, an HIV Aids fundraising exhibition, Alliance Francais, Paris, France

2006
Parking Gallery Show. The Cape Africa Platform Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
AardKlop, part of the Sasol group show, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Sasol New Signatures, awarded with certificate of acknowledgement, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS

2014
Place of Light, commissioned by Propertuity for the entrance of Market Up building, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013
Phototaxis, commissioned by Propertuity for the entrance of Artisan Lofts, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009 - 2011
Pageview/Fietas Subway, commissioned by The Trinity Session and 26’10 South Architects to create a public artwork for the Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg South Africa

2009
Bus Rapid Transit, commissioned glass artwork by the Johannesburg Development Agency, Soweto, South Africa