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 6^th - 8^th 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 7^thJune - 14^th July.

APRIL ‘24 - ART BRUSSELS

New pieces of Chris Soal appeared at the contemporary art fair Art Brussels, Belgium, from the 25^th to the 28^thof 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 4^th to the 7^thof 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 15^th to the 18^th of February 2024.

FEBRUARY ‘24 - SOLO EXHIBITION x WHATIFTHEWORLD

Chris Soal’s solo exhibition was showing at WhatIfTheWorld gallery from the 3^rd February to the 9^thof 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

STUDIO

TEXT

INTERVIEWS

Ruining Ruination

Inalienable

In conversation with Chris Soal

WORK

WORK

INFO