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About

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Gina Niederhumer came to South Africa aged 20, supposedly for one year and even though she has moved back and forth a few times, Africa has cast a spell on her from which she cannot — and does not wish to — escape. Finding herself ‘caught’ between two continents, two languages as well as past family history and present reality, she uses the art-making process to ‘explain her life to herself’.

 

Coming from a family of Needlewomen in Austria,

using needle and thread is her most intimate way of describing that journey through her life. While at once familiar in technique it also connects her symbolically by an invisible thread to them.

 

Gina's work frequently describes the personal and private, often taken from the larger family narrative. Whether this happens through a cathartic transformation of an inner conflict or a seemingly frivolous text massage taken from one of her journals...the work is both a quest for understanding her life, as well as a visual externalisation of an inner process.

 

Recently, during the confines of lockdown, Gina started to paint again. The themes are taken from the mundane and daily trivia, frequently depicting the interior of her home. Whilst this may appear a complete turnaround from her deeper search for meaning as evident in many of the textile works, the paintings may be understood as a kind of surfacing from the intensity of the “interior search", providing a certain sense of safety through the familiarity of the objects.

Gina Niederhumer has a Masters degree in Fine Art from UCT and lives and works in Cape Town. She is also the founder of the ‘Palmer-Studio-Collective’ in the Muizenberg Village, which showcases a variety of - predominantly - textile works from South African designers and makers.

 

 

 

Gina Niederhumer -Studio Photo 2020_edit
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Curriculum Vitae

 

 

Education

 

2016                            MFA UCT

2013                            BVA UNISA

1978 – 1980                Academy for Artistic and Industrial Design (Linz, Austria)

 

Selected Exhibitions

 

2021                            Liminal Hiatus - Gallery One11 (Cape Town)

                                    Look me in the Eye - Riebeek Contempory (Riebeeck Kasteel)

                       

2020                            Online Charity Art Auction - Artvark Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Botanicals - Kim Sachs Gallery (Johannesburg)                  

                                    Subsurface Scattering - Gallery One11 (Porterville, Cape Town)

                                    Home is where the Art is- Zeitz (Cape Town)

 

2019                            Text and Textile: a monologue in Needle and Thread Gallery, Glen Carlou (Stellenbosch) solo     

                                    Terrain - Gallery Glen Carlou (Stellenbosch)

                                    Self - Gallery Glen Carlou (Stellenbosch)

                                    Textiles Tagebuch - Textile Kunst Gallery Aichhorn (Salzburg)

                                    Open Studio Tour (Muizenberg)

 

2018                            Unfolding Fibre - Pretoria Art Museum (Pretoria)

                                    Artvark Anniversary Show -  (Cape Town)

                                    Fynarts  (Hermanus)

                                    Open Studio Tour (Muizenberg)

                                    Yarn - IS Art Gallery (Franschhoek)

                                    Meditative Motions - Gallery One11 (Cape Town)

 

2017                            Recent Masters Showcase 2017 - Michaelis Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Sew many days in the year - RiverStudio (Barrydale) solo

                                    Out of Nowhere - Smith Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Art of the Thread -  Fynarts (Hermanus)

                                    Open Studio Tour (Muizenberg)

                                    Nano 1.1 - Barnard Gallery (Cape Town)

 

2016                            Fibreworks IX - Mogalakwena Gallery (Cape Town) 

                                    Ubuntutu: Life Legacies of Love and Action Project - Nelson Mandela Gateway Museum (CT)           

                                    20/20 Hind.Site  - Muller’s Gallery  (Cape Town)                  

                                    Re-visit/Re-member/Re-claim - Salzamt (Linz) solo

                                    Fynarts  (Hermanus)

                                    Portrait of a Needlewoman  Mogalakwena Gallery (Cape Town) solo

 

2015                            MEND – Masters Graduation Exhibition, Michaelis Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    and/or - Masters Group Show, Michaelis Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Industrial Karoo - Fear & Loss (Pretoria, Cape Town)

                                    Sewing a history of healing - Mogalakwena Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Black & White Contemporary - Kim Sacks Gallery (Johannesburg)

 

2014                            Major Minor V (Johannesburg, Durban)

                                    Industrial Karoo - Fear & Loss (Bloemfontain)

 

2013                            Art Fair  (Johannesburg)

                                    Major Minor IV - (Durban, Kenya, Ontario)

                                    CCDI Handmade Collection (Cape Town)

                                    Angel- Grande Provence Gallery (Franshhoek)

2012                            Pointure - UJ Art Gallery (Johannesburg)

                                    Contexturise - UJ FADA Gallery  (Johannesburg)

                                    KKNK, (Oudtshoorn)

                                    In Bloom II - Casa Labia (Muizenberg)

                                    Design Indaba, CCDI, Handmade collection (Cape Town)

                                    I am safe here - Artspace Gallery, 2 person show (Johannesburg)

                                    The Painted Word - Grande Provence Gallery (Franshhoek)

                                    ArtSpace Exhibition at Jan Celliers (Johannesburg)

 

2011                            BVA UNISA Graduation Exhibition - Grande Provence (Franshhoek)

                                    ArtSpace at Jan Celliers (Johannesburg)

                                    Kimonos - National Quilt Festival (Stellenbosch)

 

2010 & 2009                Major Minor III - Rochester (New York, Cape Town)

                                    Insight - Rust-en-Vrede Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Wordfest (Stellenbosch)

                                    Voyages of Discovery - Fiberworks VI - Art.B Gallery (Cape Town)

                                    Vista - Fiberworks V - (Durban)

                                    African Melee Exhibition:Traditions, Magic Rituals and Heritage – 15th                                                                            Carrefour European Patchwork Exposition - St.Marie-aix-Mines, (Alsace, France)

           

2008 & 2007                Innovative Threads (Cape Town)

                                    Don’t be so Square  - Travelling Exhibition  (South Africa)

                                    World Quilting Competition (USA)

                                    Design Indaba (Cape Town)

                                   

2006 & 2005                Innovative Threads (Cape Town)

                                    National Quilt Festival (Port Elizabeth)

                                    Fragments of the Past - Art Hotel (Riebeck-Kasteel) solo

                                    The Sandrooms - Empire Cafe (Cape Town) solo

                                    Sands of Time - Travelling  Exhibition (South Africa)

 

1989  - 1992                Studio Route Exhibitions (Johannesburg)

1990  - 2002                Stars for Africa - National Quilt Festival (Durban)

                                    National Quilt Festival (Cape Town)

                                    Around the Bend - Travelling Quilt Exhibition (South Africa)

 

Commissions and Studio Work

 

2002 till present              Textile Studio/Gallery - (Muizenberg, Cape Town)

2004                            Commission: Banner Quilt for “Sustainable Energy for Africa” (CT)

1992 – 1997                Textile Studio (Greenside, Johannesburg)

1981 – 1984                Costumes and Backdrop for “Das Kleintheater” (Johannesburg)

 

 

Residencies

 

2016                            Gast Atelier Salzamt, Kunstsammlung Oberösterreich, (Linz, Austria)

2007                            Drawing for a Communal Diary, Summer Academy (Salzburg, Austria)

           

Art facilitation  

 

2020                            Online Workshops -  First Aid Kit for a rainy Day     

2002 – 2019                Studio Classes -  (Muizenberg)

2018 & 2019                Textil Symposium Haslach - (Haslach, Austria)

           

Publications             

                                    Sew many days in the year - (2017)

                                     Visi Magazine - (2016)

                                    Mend – Vernähte Fäden (2015)

                                    and/or (2015)

                                    Craft Art in South Africa (2015)

                                    Fear & Loss: the industrial Karoo (2015)

                                    Pointure (2012)

                                    Major Minor (2012)

                                    Betweens (2011)

                                    A Knitting Adventure (2011)

                                    Vermächtnis (2010)

                                    Absolution Cloth (2010)

                                    Innovative Thread: a decade of South African Fiber Art (2006)

 

Film                              SEW many Days - Green Renaissance 

 

  

E-mail                         gina.niederhumer@gmail.com

Tel                             +27 084 558 5268

Website                      www.ginaniederhumer.com

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