Gabrielle Kruger
Ungrounded Landscape, installation (detail), 2018
About:
Gabrielle Kruger was born in 1993 in Cape Town, where she currently lives and works. After graduating summa cum laude from Stellenbosch University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2015, she went on to be awarded her Masters in Fine Arts from Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town in 2018.
Ungrounded Landscape, installation (detail), 2018
Kruger’s unique practice involves harnessing the materiality of acrylic paint to create complex, layered, 3-dimensional installations of plant-like forms. Freeing the paint from the surface of a canvas or board, the artist interrogates the constructedness of both the tradition of landscape painting, and the modern natural environment itself. These works expose the complexity of the distinction between natural and synthetic, between plant, paint and plastic, hinting at the difficult relationship between humanity and our natural environment in the Anthropocene era.
Overgrowth I & II, 2018
Recent solo exhibitions include Ungrounding Landscape, Michaelis School of Fine Art (UCT), Cape Town, South Africa (2018), and Growing Intrusions, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa (2015).
Growth, 2017
Kruger has exhibited widely within South Africa, including in such group exhibitions as Untitled 6.99, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2018); SS17, Gallery Momo, Cape Town (2017); Growing Gatherings, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2017); Between t[here] and then here and there, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town (2017); Lady Bush, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West (2017); Untitled 3.99, 99Loop Gallery, Cape Town (2016); Kingdom, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West (2016); Dreams Amongst Other Things, Salon91, Cape Town (2015); Scape, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch (2015); The Life of an Object, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch (2013); and The Poetics of Space, The Sasol Art Museum, Stellenbosch (2013).
Ungrounding Landscape, installation (detail), 2018
In 2018, she was awarded a Certificate of Excellence from the 33rd Chelsea International Fine Art Competition, and will be participating in the collective exhibition at Agora Gallery, New York, NY, USA.