Artist CV

Artist's statement

(b 1970ZA. Lives and works in Cape Town)

Raaff's works begin with a photographic image as a springboard. The medium of photography, and its ability to fix an image, is what piques her interest. Raaff translates this into works using ink, watercolour and water-based oil as a vehicle for alluding to the form, function and emotion of her ethereal subjects. Thematically, Raaff is interested in the space and arrangement of local South African neighbourhoods, and the everyday goings on of the people who inhabit them. Some works revel in the semi-abstract qualities of some vistas, while more recent works play out in a more intimate, painterly relationship with the subject.

Solo exhibitions

2019: Echoes from the South, SMITH, Cape Town
2017: Trail, SMITH, Cape Town
2015: Night Watch, Salon 91, Cape Town
2009: In Our Midst, Muti Gallery, Cape Town
1995: Recent Paintings, AVA

Group exhibitions

2020: Hazy shade of Winter, Salon 91, Cape Town
2019: Emphatic Whispers, SMITH, Cape Town
2018: Close Encounters, SMITH, Cape Town; Investec Cape Town Art Fair
2016: Field, Salon 91, Cape Town
2015: Empire, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town; However, Arthub Gallery, London; Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2014: Scintilla: An Alchemy Show, Commune 1, Cape Town; Rotterdam Art Fair; Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2013: Investec Cape Town Art Fair
2012: -2019 various affordable art fairs in Paris, New York, and London
2011: People with Tom Cullberg, Chagan Contemporary, London; Realm, two person show with Lorenzo Nassimbeni, Salon 91, Cape Town
1998: Unplugged, initiated by Kendall Geers at Rembrandt Van Rijn Gallery, Market Theatre, Johannesburg

Awards & residencies

2009: Joint residency with Justin Fiske, Nirox
2007: Finalist, Spier Contemporary
1992: Santam Scholarship; Finalist Absa Atelier 1992
1991: Muratie Painting Award

Press & publications

2017: “Whispers from the White Space”, by Gabrielle Raaff, Critical Interventions: Journal of African
2014: Art History and Visual Culture, 2014; Benetton Small Canvasses, published
2011: Vacated Spaces - Contemporary South African Watercolour, Virginia MacKenny Art South Africa, Volume 09, Issue 04
2007: Cultures Collide, Natalie Bosman, The Citizen. 7/08 Spier Contemporary, Review for Visi Magazine

Collections

British Airways

Slow Lounge

Bennetton Nandos

UCT - Irma Stern Museum Collection

UCT - New Finance Department

Private collections in USA, UK, Austrailia, Germany, France

Teaching

2018: Lecturer in Drawing for first year Fine Art students, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
1994-2011: Lecturer in Drawing, Illustration and Design at The Red and Yellow School of Advertising and Design
1993: Lectured at Stellenbosch University in Alternative Printmaking

Education

1995: Completed two Summer School Courses at Central Saint Martin’s College, London: Colour Works and Art Therapy
1992: Graduated from Stellenbosch University with a Fine Art Degree and Higher Diploma in Education
1988: Matriculated from Herschel Senior School