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CHRIS SOAL

TEXT

CURRICULUM VITAE


SOLO EXHIBITIONS



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
2021 - In Times Like These...and Other Stories,
WHATIFTHEWORLD,
Cape Town

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

2019 – Process
BKhz,
Braamfontein

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

2018 – Fresh Voices 
Guns and Rain Gallery
Johannesburg

2017 – NEWWORK19
Wits Art Museum 
Johannesburg

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

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


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

2021 - Nirox Foundation Residency, Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg

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

COLLECTIONS

Chris Soal has work 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 an award-winning, emerging South African artist.

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

SEPTEMPER ‘24 - THE ARMORY SHOW

New York welcomed Chris Soal for the first time at The Armory Show. Be ready to have your breath taken away from Sep 6th - 8th in booth F7.

AUGUST ‘24 - IOTA24

The second Indian Ocean Triennial welcomes Chris Soal’s sculptures at the John Curtin Gallery, Perth, Australia. IOTa runs from Aug - Oct 2024.


JUNE ‘24 - SOLO SHOW - ITALY

Vestige, Chris Soal’s latest solo exhibition, took place in Pietrasanta, Italy, in collaboration with Eduardo Secci gallery. It was a wonderful sight from the 7th June - 14th July.

APRIL ‘24 - ART BRUSSELS

New pieces of Chris Soal appeared at the contemporary art fair Art Brussels, Belgium, from the 25th to the 28th of April.


APRIL ‘24 - MIART

Miart 2024, titled No Time No Space showcased international artist Chris Soal in Milan, April 12-14.


APRIL ‘24 - DALLAS ART FAIR

Soal’s undisputably unique works featured at the Dallas Art Fair. Represented by Eduardo Secci gallery, the art fair took place from the 4th
 to the 7th of April.


FEBRUARY ‘24 - CAPE TOWN ART FAIR

After his solo exhibition at WhatIfTheWorld galley, the Cape Town art fair welcomed Chris’ new œuvres. The exhibition took place from the 15th
 to the 18th  of February 2024.


FEBRUARY ‘24 - SOLO EXHIBITION x WHATIFTHEWORLD

Chris Soal’s solo exhibition was showing at WhatIfTheWorld gallery from the 3rd
 February to the 9th of March. A fresh new body of work was displayed.


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