BIOGRAPHY
DEON VENTER
(b. 1953 Eastern Cape, South Africa )
STATEMENT ABOUT THE ARTIST
“Whatever you have to say,” wrote poet Charles Olson, “leave the roots on, let them / dangle / Just to make clear / Where they come from.”
Venter’s paintings, which are almost of necessity big, raw, brawny, caustic and convulsive – all qualities which lie somewhere quite beyond their being merely “expressive” or “expressionistic” – are quite clearly dedicated to the galvanizing of understanding, and perhaps to some subsequent transformative and cathartic effect generated, in the viewer, by the dark scale of the events which are his subject.
There is a stern nobility about Deon Venter’s paintings, the origin of which may well lie in the epic grieving that informs them. It’s as if each of these big tortured pictures – pictures that are distressed both literally and metaphorically – can be said to bear witness to a specific node or crisis event in recent world history, some extreme fallout from the human condition that qualifies his art as both political and, in the long run, historical, albeit in a very special sense. Venter’s paintings do not, for example, document. Rather, they memorialize, contextualize, and, in the end, provide something like benediction; a palm of understanding proffered at the end of the mind’s bitter journeying through experience.
This is the space in which Venter’s paintings seem to come into being: in the highly-charged gap between a wrenching, disorienting, destabilizing historical event, and the formation of the artist’s epic essay in painterly inquiry into what has befallen us.
Venter’s convulsiveness is one way, a powerful, ancient route, finally, to revelation and peace. What, in sum, are Deon Venter’s paintings? I’m going to plunder poet Frank O’Hara for the phrase – a phrase which, used anywhere close to Venter’s paintings, gains new resonance. Venter’s paintings are Meditations in an Emergency.
Gary Michael Dault
BIOGRAPHY
Deon Venter exhibits internationally in leading contemporary fine art galleries. His work is included in permanent collections of museums, public and private collections in Canada, USA, UK, Germany, Switzerland and Africa.
Since 2002, Venter’s paintings have been exhibited regularly at international art fairs on three continents. His unique content, method and use of materials have stirred the interest of art collectors and critics alike.
Venter was born in 1953 in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. He graduated from Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design in 1976. He lectured at the University of Fort Hare and the Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa.
Venter immigrated to Canada in 1989 and lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia. He visits South Africa regularly. His latest series include: My Mother’s Ashes/ Battlefields, (paintings of the Anglo/Boer War battlesites in their contemporary settings) – Missing / Highway of Tears (paintings of the missing and murdered women from Vancouver East Side and Highway 16) – Mythos/Logos (paintings of the symbiotic relationship between mythical and logical thinking).
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Education and Appointments
1976
Fine Arts Diploma Hon. Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design.
1983-1986
Lecturer Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design. Head of Ceramics.
1986-1989
Lecturer University of Fort Hare. Head of Sculpture Department.
EXHIBITIONS
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016
Winchester Gallery, Victoria – Measuring a Life
2015
Winchester Gallery, Victoria – Mythos/Logos
2014
CIRCA, Johannesburg – Battle Sites/My Mother’s Ashes
2013
Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver – Pyramids
2011
Robin Relph Contemporary, Zug, Switzerland – Olympia 2
Robin Relph Contemporary, London, England – Olympia 2
2010
Simon Fraser University inaugural exhibition Fine Art Campus – Missing III
Galerie Orange, Montreal – Olympia
2009
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery – Highway of Tears
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery Vancouver – Missing II.
2008
Toronto International Art Fair – Missing / Flight 182 Solo exhibition
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery Vancouver – Missing / Flight 18 2
2007
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm Desert - The Order of Things
William Traver Gallery, Seattle - Sarcophagi
2006
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto – New Work
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver – New Work
2005
Parisian Laundry, Montreal – Last Supper Series, Headlines Series, Evidence Series
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm Desert - New Work
2004
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto – New Work
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver – Headlines
2003
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver – New Work
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – Founders Series
2002
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver – Founders Series
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – Evidence Series
2001
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver – Wound, Scab, Scar
2000
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – Altars, Offerings and Sacrifices
1999
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – Under the Volcano
1998
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island - Bosnian Stillife
1997
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver – Riders
1996
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – New Work
1995
Latitude 53 Gallery, Edmonton – Extra Ecclesium Nulla Salus
1994
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – Extra Ecclesium Nulla Salus
1993
Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Wa. USA – Shadow
1992
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island – New Work
1991
Vortex Gallery, Saltlspring Island – Requiem
1990
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver – New Work
1989
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver – Requiem
1988
Gallery International, Cape Town – New Work
University of Fort Hare, Republic of the Ciskei, South Africa – New Work
1987
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa – Blue Object
1986
University of Pretoria, South Africa – Extract
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa – New Work
1985
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa – New Work
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa
1984
Beuster Skolomowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
1983
Beuster Skolomowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
1982
Port Elizabeth Fine Arts Gallery, South Africa – Y-U-Vooz
1981
Port Elizabeth Fine Arts Gallery, South Africa – Y-U-Vooz
1980
Port Elizabeth Fine Arts Gallery, South Africa – Y-U-Vooz
Selected Group Exhibitions
2016
CIRCA Gallery, London, UK
Gallery 8, Salt Spring Island, B.C.
Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C.
2015
Pulse, New York, USA
Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C.
Gallery 8, Salt Spring Island, B.C.
2014
Johannesburg Art Fair, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg.
Winchester Galleries, Victoria
2010
Art Toronto – Toronto.
Galerie Orange, Montreal – Extreme Painting.
2008
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver
2007
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Palm Desert
2006
Parisian Laundry, Montreal
Toronto International Art Fair
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Palm Beach III, Miami International Art Fair.
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery.
2005
Cologne International Art Fair.
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery.
The Armory Show, New York
Mira Godard Gallery.
2004
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
The Armory Show, New York
Mira Godard Gallery.
Toronto International Art Fair –
Mira Godard Gallery,
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery
Buschlen Mowatt Gallery, Vancouver – Western Perspectives
2003
Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Toronto International Art Fair, Mira Godard Gallery
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver
2002
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island
2001
Ballard Lederer Gallery, Vancouver
2000 - 1992
Vortex Gallery, Saltspring Island
1995
Latitude 53 Gallery, Edmonton – Out of Canada Displaced
1991
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver
1990
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver
1989
Diane Farris Gallery, Vancouver
Los Angeles International Art Fair, Diane Farris Gallery
1988
University of Fort Hare, Ciskei, South Africa
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa – Ecca
Grahamstown Art Festival, South Africa – Ecca
National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa – Operation Hunger
1987
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa
Anne Bryant Gallery, East London, South Africa – Five Artists from Ciskei
G.A.P. exhibition, Port Elizabeth Town Hall, South Africa
G.A.P. exhibition, Grahamstown Settlers' Monument, South Africa
1986
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa.
University of Fort Hare, Ciskei, South Africa – Ecca
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design – Staff Exhibition
1985
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa
University of Orange Free State, South Afriaca
Beuster Skolomowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
University of Pretoria, South Africa – Hans Marensky Award
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa – Staff Exhibition
1984
G.A.P. exhibition, City Hall, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Gallery International, Cape Town, South Africa.
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa – Staff Exhibition
Beuster Skolomowski Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town
1983
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, South Africa – Staff Exhibition
1982
King George V Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1981
King George V Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1980
Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
1979
King George V Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa – Centennial Exhibition
1978
King George V Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
1977
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
COLLECTIONS
Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, Canada.
Granite Club, Toronto, Canada.
Harbor Green One, Vancouver.
Aldo Collection, Montreal.
Jacob Collection, Montreal.
Michael Kedar/Eva Seidner collection, Toronto
John Le Febvre collection, Malibu.
Robin Relph collection, London, UK
National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
South African National Museum, Pretoria, South Africa.
King George V Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
University of Fort Hare, Ciskei, South Africa
Port Elizabeth School of Art and Design, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Hans Marensky Sculpture Award, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Numerous private and corporate collections in Canada, South Africa, UK and US
