(b. 1985 South Africa)

Justin Southey graduated cum laude from Stellenbosch Academy of Graphic design and Photography (2007) with a BA in Applied Design. Justin Southey's practice explores notions of landscapes and fantastical worlds that serve as metaphors for more unquantifiable emotional and spiritual spaces.

Acting like ephemeral mirages, Southey’s paintings explore and capture the intertwining and transcendent quality of the unseen. Capturing momentary feelings in a visual form, these investigations are both deeply personal and also often made in response to his immediate environment

With playful bold swathes of colour, texture and exuberant mark making, there is a push and pull the viewer experiences, directing the eye and stimulating the senses.

These ‘landscapes’ reveal melodious harmony and an overall narrative, and upon closer inspection investigating smaller worlds unfold, that invite the viewer to dream and imagine the atmosphere of physical space.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2022

Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021     

Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 

2020  

STILL, group show Everard Read, online exhibition

2019  

Do not go gentle into that good night, solo show, Cavalli Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2018  

Sublimis, group show, M Contemporary, Sydney, Australia

In the Forests of the Night, group show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017  

Bathyal, solo show, Cubicle Series, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2016  

Winter Collection, group show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Kingdom, group show, Cavalli Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Pastoral Abstraction, group show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2013  

Memphis/ African Totemism, group show, Design Indaba, Cape Town, South Africa (curated by Li Edelkoort)

Back in 5 mins, group show, Salon91, Cape Town, South Africa 

2012  

Wild Things, group show, Salon91, Cape Town, South Africa

2011  

Something New, Side Street Studios, Cape Town, South Africa            

Vast, group show, Searle Street Post, Cape Town, South Africa 

BFF, group show, Woodstock Industrial, Cape Town, South Africa 

2010  

Ark, Group Show, Bamboo Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa (curated by Damon Gustang)

2009  

No Strange Land, Group show, Salon91, Cape Town, South Africa