Marlise Keith
Bokan Det 2.
About:
Marlise Keith lives in Clovelly and draws primarily in acrylic inks on paper and board. Her work was described by critic Melvyn Minnaar in the Cape Times (26 June 2008) as “The glorious and mysterious things of [a] fleeting world [are] what Marlise Keith uses to define her astonishing individual, complicated visual tales. An artist with a…brooding, vivid original voice”.
Marlise Keith’s style is identifiable in her idiosyncratic use of personal symbolism in a diverse body of work. Her wonderfully varied viewpoints are drawn from vast subject matter, including a personal medley of horrific news headlines, roadside memorials, colonial history, psychopathology, girlhood memories, dreams, friends’ dogs, Pinterest and her persistent, chronic migraines.
The result is a richly layered body of work both violent and uncanny, surreal with a playful use of colour and humour. The latter draws in the viewer to a closer scrutiny of the darker complexities lurking beneath, which offer endless possibilities of meaning.
Devil’s Fruit, 2016.
Ai tog nog ‘n dooie dag.2012.
Fallen, 2010.
Keith studied BA Fine Arts at the University of Pretoria, which was completed in 1995 and completed her Master’s Degree in Fine arts at the University of Stellenbosch in 2000. To keep the wolf from the door, she taught art at high school level and later was head of the Production Design Department at AFDA, a tertiary film school before finally committing to do art full time in 2006. She has participated in various group shows nationally and abroad. Her first solo show was in 2000. Her most recent solo exhibition, Histrionix took place at Brundyn+Gonsalves in 2013. Keith’s works can be found in various collections in South Africa, America, Australia, Britain, France, Germany and Sweden.