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CHRIS SOAL

TEXT

CURRICULUM VITAE


SOLO EXHIBITIONS



2024 - Solo Presentation at The Armory Show, WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery,
New York, USA

2024 - Vestige,
Eduardo Secci Gallery,
Pietrasanta, Italy

2024 - Surface tension,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Cape Town, South Africa

2023 - Finds taken for wonders,
Piero Atchugarry Gallery,
Miami, USA

2022 - Remains to be seen,
Eduardo Secci Gallery,
Milan, Italy
2022 - Solo presentation at Art Brussels,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Brussels, Belgium
2021 - Elegy,
Nirox Foundation,
Johannesburg, South Africa

2021 - As below so above,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Cape Town, South Africa
2019 – Field of Vision,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Cape Town, South Africa

2019 – Solo Presentation at
TOMORROWS/TODAY,
Curated by Tumelo Mosaka,
Investec Cape Town Art Fair
Cape Town, South Africa

GROUP EXHIBITIONS


2024 - My World curated by Hans den Hartog Jager, Singer Laren, Laren, Netherlands

2024 - Collection Majudia, Selection of Works from the Collection - Summer 2024, Arsenal Contemporary, Montreal, Canada

2024 - IOTA24, John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia

2023 - l’Art de Rien,
CENTRALE
Brussels, Belgium

2022 - To Whistle Back,
Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch,
South Africa

2022 - A Quiet New Focus,
Villa Legodi Centre for Sculpture,
Johannesburg, South Africa

2022 - Seeds of the Fig, Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, curated by RESEVOIR, Tulbagh,  South Africa

2022 - Earth Power!,
Montoro 12,
Brussels, Belgium

2022 - The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize Finalists Exhibition,
Norval Foundation,
Cape Town, South Africa
2021 - In Times Like These...and Other Stories,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Cape Town, South Africa.

2021 - Witness, curated by Natasha Becker
Piero Atchugarry Gallery,
Miami, USA
2021 - 40 under 40, curated by Igsaan Martin.
Twee Jonge Gezellen Wine Estate, Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, South Africa.
2021 - Margins of Error, 
Nirox Sculpture Park, 
Johannesburg, South Africa
2020 – Matereality
Iziko South African National Gallery
Cape Town, South Africa

2019 – Process
BKhz,
Braamfontein, South Africa

2019 – Il est une fois à l’Ouest
Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine MÉCA 
Bordeaux, France

2018 – Germination
RAW Material Company
Dakar, Senegal

2018 – Forward?
Curated by Ulrich Wolff and Elizabeth Miller-Vermeulen,
Stellenbosch University Museum,
Stellenbosch, South Africa

2018 – Fresh Voices 
Guns and Rain Gallery
Johannesburg, South Africa

2017 – NEWWORK19
Wits Art Museum 
Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 – Activate/Captivate: Collections  Re-engagement
Wits Art Museum
Johannesburg, South Africa

COLLABORATIONS

2020 – Selected as one of ten contemporary artists to participate in the 5th edition of the Dior Lady Art project.

AWARDS

2024 – African Leadership Initiative - Young Leaders Fellow (5th Class)

2021 – Finalist, Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Cape Town, South Africa

2020 – Recipient of The Claire & Edoardo Villa Will Trust Grant

2019 – SEED Award
Presented by the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA) - For career acknolwedgment

2018 – PPC Imaginarium Award, Overall winner, and winner of the Sculpture category

RESIDENCIES


2025 - Fundación Patiño, Villa Albina, Bolivia

2022 - SAFFCA.EU, La Cambre, Brussels, Belgium

2021 - Nirox Foundation Residency, Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019 – Roma Residenza, hosted by Montoro 12, Rome

2018 – Fellow of the RAW Academié Session 5, directed by Otobong Nkanga. RAW Material Company. Dakar, Senegal

2018 – Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art. Co-resident with Minnette Vari. Entabeni Farm, Knysna, South Africa

COLLECTIONS

Chris Soal has works in numerous private and public collections, both in South Africa and Internationally. Notable collections include:

The Brooklyn Museum, USA.

The Bunker Artspace, (The Beth Rudin DeWoody collection), USA.

The Braunsfelder Family Collection, Germany.

The Darlene and Jorge M. Perez Collection, Miami, USA.

The Kelly and Scott Mueller Collection, USA.

The Renee and Robert Drake Collection, Netherlands.

Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection - Cloud Seven, Brussels.

Scheryn Art Collection, South Africa.

Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA), South Africa, France, Belgium.

Kavita Chellaram Art collection, London, Lagos.

Martin Nielsen Collection, Denmark.

MONA - The Museum of Old and New Art, Tasmania, Australia.

The Trevor Noah Collection, South Africa & USA.

LAM Museum, Lisse, Netherlands.

Arsenal Contemporary, Montreal; Toronto; New York.
MACAAL Museum, Morocco.

Francesca Lavazza Collection, Turin, Italy.

INFORMATION


BIOGRAPHY



Portrait by Matt Slater. 


Chris Soal (b. 1994) is a South African artist whose critically acclaimed sculptura practice—shaped by a Johannesburg upbringing and now based in Cape Town—has garnered international recognition for its innovative engagement with materiality, perception, and place.

Soal’s studio-based practice is sculptural in its output, working with objects and materials in ways which show not only a conceptual engagement with the contexts and histories of the objects, but that also re-enforce the body as a site for knowledge reception and production. Soal’s works seek to make a poetic statement through the simplest of means, engaging the viewer’s spatial awareness and perceptual habits while challenging core societal preconceptions of value and hierarchy.

Through his use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, along with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable, sandpaper and other industrial materials, the artist intuitively develops the familiar to the point of the uncanny. Soal’s works can be considered as a social abstraction that is deeply rooted in, and reflective of, having grown up in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Working symbiotically with his materials, Soal utilises the inherent physical characteristics of the objects to transform them through processes of aggregation, combination and erosion to interrogate views of nature and culture as a binary concept – seeking to foreground pressing ecological concerns by repositioning the viewer as an active agent within the contemporary environment. Despite the artificiality of his materials, Soal’s process allows the materials to take on biomorphic qualities or evoke natural phenomena, expressing his interest in the phenomenological quality of the materials.


CONTACT

CHRIS SOAL
︎ Instagram
︎ Email

NEWS

 ‘25 - BROOKLYN MUSEUM 

A piece of Soal’s work was gifted by Rona and Jeffrey Citrin to the Brooklyn Museum, in honour of the Brooklyn Museum's 200th Anniversary. You can find it in the Contemporary Art, Northeast Corner, Overlook Gallery. 


APRIL ‘25 - DALLAS ART FAIR   

Taking place in Dallas from April 10th-13th, 2025, the Dallas Art Fair will explore the theme 'The Importance of Art Amid Social Unrest.' Pierro Atchugarry Gallery will be participating in this important event, showcasing Soal’s work.


APRIL ‘25 - MIART

Milan's premier modern and contemporary art fair, from April 4th - 6th, 2025, at Allianz Mico, continues to be a significant platform for international contemporary artist, Chris Soal.


APRIL ‘25 - SP Arte

Hosted in São Paulo from April 2nd-6th, 2025, the Latin American Art Fair showcases the best of contemporary art. Pierro Atchugarry Gallery is proud to present a curated selection of Soal’s works at this prestigious event.


FEBRUARY ‘25 - THE CAPE TOWN ART FAIR

The 12th edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair took place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from Feb 21th - 23rd. The theme "Celebrating Art, Creativity, and Exploration Through the Power of Play" resonated with Soal's dynamic and thought-provoking pieces.


‘25 - MACAAL

Located in Marrakech, Morocco,  MACAAL shows its permanent collection as apart of its Seven Contours, One Collection exhibition, displaying Soal’s work.


FEBRUARY ‘25 - ZONA MACO

Chris Soal showcased his work at Mexico City's esteemed Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco from the 5th - 9th. As a result of this exhibition, he was granted a residency in Bolivia, where he will further explore and develop his artistic practice.

PRESS


UNEARTHING LAYERS: CHRIS SOAL’S ‘SURFACE TENSION’
︎ by Misha Krynauw for Artthrob

PALIMPSEST: CHRIS SOAL’S SCULPTURES REVEAL MANY MEANINGS
︎ by Drew Haller for That Eclectic

INTERVIEW
︎ with Adam Hencz for Artland

INTERVIEW
︎ with Artoday

INTERVIEW
︎ on As below so above for Tongues

INTERVIEW 
︎ with Emilie Froment for Habitat Magazine

AMORPHOUS - THE SCULPTURES
OF CHRIS SOAL
︎ by Andrew Lasane for COLOSSAL

JOHANNESBURG ARTIST’S TOOTHPICK SCULPTURES POINT WAY FOR AFRICAN ABSTRACTION
︎ by Graham Wood on Wanted Online

FIELD OF VISION REVIEW
︎ by Ashraf Jamal on ArtThrob