BIOGRAPHY
(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
2021
The Great Lulllll, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2019
The Heart Has Many Rooms, Everard Read, Johannesburg
2017
Bend to Her Will, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town/Johannesburg
2015
Atopia, NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom
2013
Familia Obscura, Brundyn Gallery, Cape Town
2011
SOME DANCE TO REMEMBER SOME DANCE TO FORGET, Blank Gallery, Cape Town
2009
Graceland, Gallery AOP, Johannesburg
2008
Sub Rosa, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town
2007
Perfectly Still, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg
2005
Fools Gold, Bell Roberts Contemporary, Cape Town
2003
Blank, AVA, Cape Town
2001
From A Netherworld, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024
The Night, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg, Austria
2023
If You Look Hard Enough You Can See Our Future, African American Museum, Dallas
Bitches Brew, Everard Read Johannesburg
2022
Seeds of the Fig, Reservoir & Whatiftheworld X Krone, Twee Jonge Gezellen, Tulbagh
2021
Between Strangers, Nuweland Gallery, Netherlands
2020
Against Interpretation? Everard Read Gallery, London
Over The Rainbow, Red Bull Hangar-7, Salzburg
2019
MERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMERDELAMER, Curated by Kendell Geers, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna
2018
In the Forests of the Night, Everard Read, Johannesburg
2015
Foreign Bodies, Whatiftheworld, Cape Town
2014
20 Years of Democracy, Appalachian State University, North Carolina
2012
Positive Tension, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town
Seeing Eye, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Cape Town
Paint I, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town
2011
Alptraum, Deutscher Kuenstlerbund, Berlin, Germany
2010
Twenty, contemporary public sculpture, Nirox, Johannesburg
2007
Arcadia, AVA Gallery, Cape Town
Turbulence, Hangar-7, Salzburg, Austria
2005
Sweet Nothings, new photographic work, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2004
2nd Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennial, Stellenbosch
2003
YDESIRE, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
2001
Micro/Macro, South African Printmakers at the Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
OTHER:
2015
Aardklop Festival artist
2009
Ampersand fellowship, New York
2003
Winner of the 2003 Absa L’Atelier
1999
Selected for the UNESCO-Aschberg Residency programme, Sanskriti Kendra, New Delhi, India
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
