About
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.
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