LIZA GROBLER
(b.1974 Cape Town, South Africa)

Liza Grobler is an artist currently based in the Klein Karoo. She is a compulsive maker of things. Her work exists in physical space, but the worlds she creates are manifestations of imagined landscapes. The viewer is an accomplice that can step through the portals and move unhindered between fact and fabrication.

Grobler works with a variety of media often exploring ideas that bring together physical and psychological spaces and historical and ecological scapes. Her practice is built around process, putting materiality and ephemerality of the objects and media she works with in tension.

At Context Art Miami (2019), director Julian Navarro mentioned her as one of five artists to watch. In 2016, she was a recipient of the Africa Centre Award and IZIKO Museums commissioned a site-specific work for the National Gallery. Other career highlights include: a performative collaboration with world renowned marimbist Magdalena De Vries (2020), solo project for Cape Town International Art Fair (2017), a commissioned public artwork for Cape Town International Design Capital (2015) and the screening of her short film ‘Voices from a Divided Fountain’ as part of a traveling exhibition in Serbia (2019). Two other films ‘21st Century family portrait’ and ‘Diary of a Nanosatellite’ were respectively screened at the ADDIS International Video Arts Festival (Ethiopia & Cape Town) and at MOFO for Forever Now (Tasmania and Deep Space, 2015). She was nominated for The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize (2021+22), Helgaard Steyn National Award for Contemporary Painting (2015), as well as short-listed for the Commonwealth Arts and Craft Award (2006). She attended residencies in Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Serbia, Belgium, France, Mexico, India, the United States (ARTOMI and Residency Unlimited) and initiated an interdisciplinary international residency and exhibition ‘Smokey Signals from the Groot Karoo’ in Cape Town and Richmond, South Africa (2017).

Exhibitions include solo exhibitions in South Africa and Belgium and international group and numerous site-specific projects. Blindfolded Line, Dancing Through Time (2014), traveled to various museums in
South Africa. She is represented by Everard Read Galleries (Cape Town, Johannesburg, London) and
Uitstalling Gallery (Belgium).

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021
Voices, (upcoming), Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
Disobedient Landscapes, Uitstalling, Ghent, Belgium
 
2020
Voices from a Divided Fountain, site-specific installation at 139 Albert, Woodstock, in association Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
a rainbow in my pocket, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2018
En die groen gras groei daar om, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2017
Ripples of Perception, CIRCA Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
Maybe Time Can Fold, CIRCA Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Barbed Wire Paradise is exactly where you are, Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Unframed Section), with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Playlist, CIRCA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
If you go down to the woods today, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Blindfolded Line, Dancing Through Time, a national touring exhibition: Oliewenhuis Museum (Bloemfontein), KZNSA (Durban), Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013
Interrupted Daydreams, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2012
White Termite, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa

2010
Visitor (The Square): a Solo Exhibition in Two Parts, iArt Wembley Project Space and iArt Gallery (now Brundyn +), Cape Town, South Africa

2009
Visitor, Irma Stern Museum (in collaboration with 23 artists), Cape Town, South Africa

2007
9 Chicks & a Dick, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Groeisel #1, Outlet, Pretoria, South Africa

2004
Play with me, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2003
I can’t see the wood for the trees, so I’m taking a line for a very long walk, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2002
Almost a Valentine, Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg, South Africa

2000
The Garbage men wear gloves, Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
Transitory Terrain, Everard Read, London, UK
The side-effects of summer, Art Bureau Collective, Woodstock
Paint it Black, curated by Harrie Siertsema for Aardklop Festival (2019), travelling to museums in South Africa including Pretoria Art Museum, currently at William Humphrey Museum in Kimberley
Conversations, at Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
Transitory Terrain, Everard Read Galllery, Franschhoek
The Troubled Archive, The Labyrinth Project, curated by Wayne Matthews and Alison Shaw, Johannesburg

2020
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
TINY, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
STILL, Everard Read online exhibition, South Africa & UK
Matereality, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Hard, but Soft, curated by Pierre le Riche, Glen Carlou, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2019
hybrid narratives, hybrid histories, U10 Art Space, Belgrade, Serbia
Verf dit swart / Paint it Black, Modern Art Projects South Africa, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Forward? Forward! Forward…., Stellenbosch University centenary exhibition, US Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa
CONTEXT Art Miami, with Everard Read, Miami, USA
Winter, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2017-8
Smokey Signals from the Groot Karoo, MAPSA Richmond and Everard Read, Cape Town, South AFrica
Romulus Rebus: Imaging Empires, Priest Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
African Abstraction, Everard Read Gallery, London, South Africa
SocialFabrics SA, finissage Cape Town, South Africa

2016
Coriolis Effect: Migration and Memory, KHOJ Studios, New Delhi
Women’s work, South African National Gallery, curated by Ernestine White Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Winter Collection, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
The Space Between/The Noise Behind, a two person show with Norman O'Flynn, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
Ímago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection', New York, USA
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
AKAA Art Fair, Paris, France
Den Fair, with Otomys Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

2015
ADDIS International Video Art Festival, Ethiopia
San Juanita Project, Haitian American Museum of Chicago, USA
Homage, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Ímago Mundi, Luciano Benetton Collection’, Venice, Italy
Nando’s Rites and Duties, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa
Decor-Z, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Forever Now at MONA FOMA, New Media Festival, Tasmania, Australia

2014
Winter Sculpture Show, Nirox Foundation, Krugersdorp
International Union of Architecture World Congress, Durban, South Africa

2013
5 Years in Print, Warren Editions, Cape Town, South Africa
Chance favours the Connected Mind, collaboration with Barbara Wildenboer, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, Hong Kong
Stellenbosch Revisited, co-curated by Marna Hattingh and Liza Grobler for Die Woordfees, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2012
Summer Salon, Brundyn & Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa
Tjorts/Cheers!, drawing exhibition after a poem by Danie Marais, curators: Marna Hattingh and Liza Grobler, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa

2011
Alptraum, Travelling drawing exhibition: Berlin, Los Angeles, Cape Town, South Africa
Open Books, iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Collection 13, SMAC Art Gallery Cape Town, South Africa

2010
Divisions: Aspects of South African Art (1948-2010), SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
The Menippean Uprising, curated by Pierre Fouché and Hentie van der Merwe, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
Frans Masereel Centre Annual Printmaking Show, Kasterlee, Belgium
Twenty Years of South African Sculpture, curated by Andrew Lamprecht, Nirox Sculpture Park, Cradle of Humankind

2009
Black: the antithesis of the fraudulent sensuality of culture’s façade. An experiment in voluntary asceticism, Blank Projects
Warren Editions, Monotypes and etchings, Curious, Whetstone and Frankley, Cape Town, South Africa

2008
The Bijou Burns Again, UCA Gallery, Observatory
Women in Craft, Spier Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2007
Common Ground, Lönnstrom Contemporary Art Museum in collaboration with Jeanne Hoffman, Rauma, Finland
South African Art on Paper, Gallery Barry Keldoulis, Sydney, Australia
TACT, Artspace, Pretoria, South Africa

2006
STEEK, Barend de Wet, Blank Projects, Cape Town
ROEM, curated by Sandra Hanekom, interactive sculptures for ‘Die Storm’, KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Flesh!, curated by Chris Diedericks, KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
the blank paper project, Cape 07, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
Just like home, in collaboration with Norman O’ Flynn, Solothurn, Switzerland

2006
20ARTISTS06 travelling exhibition, coordinated by Norman O’Flynn, Bell-Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town & Art on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005
Of Want and Desire, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Synergy, Michaelis Collection contemporary beaded designs, part of the history of beads in Africa, Iziko National Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2004
Stolen Affections, Goethe Institute, Bahai, Brazil
Artomi, Omi, New York, USA
The Art of Drawing, Durbanville Cultural Centre, Durbanville, South Africa

2002
Low Rider, Polvo Art Studio, Chicago, USA

2000
Majority Rules, Free Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
YEA-R 2000, Chelsea Gallery, Wynberg

SELECTED SITE-SPECIFIC PROJECTS

2016
Barbed Wire Paradise, an immersive drawing, StudioGrob, Woodstock

2015
Diary of a Nanosatellite video in Forever Now, launch of the Golden Record into Deep Space, Tasmania
Punctuating the Landscape, Maravatio, Mexico
Half square project in Association Yellowwoods for Design Indaba, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
Cape Town World Design Capital Accidental Art Public artwork for Nando’s on Kloofstreet

2013
Big Brother is Stunned, Woodstock Industrial Centre, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
From Mooi uitsig to Mooiuitsig: an Artventure, commissioned by Lien Botha for Hangklip Art Week

2010
Cocoon, Nirox Sculpture Park, Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg, South Africa
Imagination: for humans, The Laboratory for Recycled Revolutions, curator: Isa Suarez, Greatmore, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
The 1-day Residency project, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Gift, Pierre Fouché, Cape Town, South Africa

2007
Afrikan Tähti/ Star of Africa, Jeanne Hoffman, Rauma, Finland
C-Units, Jeanne Hoffman, Big Bay
Icarus project, Norman O’ Flynn, Cape Town, South Africa

2006
Soft Rock Project, Sunset Beach, Cape Town, South Africa
Teardrop Project, Solothurn, Switzerland
Heritage Cache, Cobus van Bosch and Arlene Amaler-Raviv, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
Groeisel no. 2, Aardklop Arts Festival, curated by Abrie Fourie, Potchefstroom, South Africa

2004
D.I.E.N.S., KKNK, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

2003
Excess: Proudly South African’, in collaboration with Jesus Macarena-Avila, Cape Town, South Africa

2002
Momentary Monument, Rauma, Finland
Music Concrete-YDEsire Art Night’, in collaboration with Jeanne Hoffman, the Cape of Good Hope Castle, Cape Town, South Africa
Fantastic Rubbish’, a mixed media installation, World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001
R.I.P, Jeanne Hoffman, Durbanville, South Africa
Forest Cross, Dalsãsen forest, Norway

1999
Oos Wes, Tuis Bes, Mark Coetzee and Leze Hugo, Oudtshoorn Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

ART FAIRS & BIENNIALS

2012
Johannesburg Art Fair, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010
Johannesburg Art Fair, SMAC Gallery, South Africa

2006
Cape Biennale at blank projects, curated by Andrew Lamprecht, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
The 5th International Florence Biennial for Contemporary Art, Fortezza de Bastilica, Florence, Italy

2015
Guapamacataro Art & Ecology Residency, Michoacan, Mexico for Art and Ecology
Nominated for Helgaard Steyn National Award for contemporary painting
Short-listed for Headlands Centre Residency, San Francisco
Social Fabric SA Residency in Port Elizabeth, SAMIL

2014
Cape Town World Design Capital public artwork for Nando’s Collection, Kloof Street
Residency at Cité des Arts, Paris

2013
Shortlisted for Woordfees Visual Arts Award, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2009
Frans Masereel Printmaking Residency, Kastelee, Belgium

2006
Pro-Helvetia Residency, Altes Spital, Solothurn, Switzerland
Short-listed for Commonwealth Arts and Craft Award

2004
ARTOMI International Artists’ Residency, Hudson, New York, USA

2002
Rauma Artists’ in Residence, Finland

2001
UNESCO Ashberg Bursary: Residency at the Nordic Artists’ Centre Dale, Norway

SELECTED PANELS, FORUMS, TEACHING, CURATION

2017
Women’s work public discussion panel, Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
*imagetext* forum, Department of Visual Arts UP, Van Wouw Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
Regional judge for Barclays National Art Competition, Cape Town, South Africa

2005-15
Opening speaker for numerous exhibitions, including GRADEX (2008, Stellenbosch University), CRISP Fresh Talent Competition (2007, ArtB) and World Design Capital project #522 (2014), South Africa

2013-15
External examiner for postgraduate students: MPhil, MAFA and MFA – Stellenbosch University & University of Cape Town, South Africa

2012
The Names We Give – conference, Gordon Institute for the Performing and Creative Arts, Cape Town

2009-10
Third year Drawing Lecturer, Visual Arts Department, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

2008–13
Lecturer/coordinator for Representation 1, Architecture, Planning and the Built Environment, University of Cape Town, South Africa

2008
SASOL New Signatures Regional Adjudicator, Cape Town, South Africa

2007-8
Lecturer History of Fashion I-III Years, Haute Couture School of Fashion, Cape Town, South Africa

2006-09
Moderator, Visual Arts, College of Cape Town, South Africa

2006
External examiner, Diploma Dissertations, Ruth Prowse School of Art, Woodstock, South Africa

2005
Co-founder with Jonathan Garnham of Blank Projects visual arts space, Cape Town

2002-04
Art b. selection and managerial committee, Art b Gallery, Bellville, South Africa

2001, 09
Guest Lecturer: 1st year Visual Communication, Stellenbosch University

2014
'Blindfolded Line, Dancing Through Time', a limited edition book on the work of Liza Grobler with contributions by Amanda Botha, Andrew Lamprecht and Jeanetta Blignaut