Atlas is a Woman GRACE CROSS - Dec 2020 - May 2021 - The Royal Portfolio
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Dec 2020 - May 2021
Atlas is a Woman
GRACE CROSS
A TLAS IS A W OMAN - G RACE C ROSS
For the Silo Hotel Vault Galler y, Cross “My embodied painting practice is a way for me
presents a new body of canvas and paper to reach back through history, to previous
works. female mystic weavers and textile makers, and
continue the task of quilting important stories,
The series, Atlas is a Woman, has been
and stitching spatial and epistemological
evo lv i n g over t he l a s t ye a r. T he wor k
investigates the psychic and physical weight borders together”
that South African women carry with them.
Taking inspiration from the Greek mythos
“I bear two women upon my back of Atlas, a titan who was condemned to hold
one dark and rich and hidden up the celestial heavens for eternity on his
in the ivory hungers of the other shoulders, the painted female figures are
mother” -audre lorde similarly burdened. The bent over women,
carrying their loads of children, world globes
The series star ted when Cross’s daughter and other symbolic ar tefacts on their backs,
would only go to sleep when strapped tight are symbols of endurance and strength in-
to her back by some kind of fabric. On the spite of the psychic and physical things they
long walks getting her to sleep, carrying this shoulder.
fragile bundle, she began thinking about all
T h e f l e s h y, u n a d o r n e d w o m e n a r e
the things that mother’s are expected to
em p ower e d t h ro ug h t he i r n ake d ne s s ;
carr y on them, historically and in this
because so much of women's work has a
moment in feminist history.
physical toll whether from the labour of
“The burden of being a mother, is taking on motherhood or in the desire industry. These
the cultural burden of relooking and breasts are working breasts, these backs
reinventing the past for a future generation”, understand the shape of labour . Their acts
s a y s C r o s s . Wo m e n , a n d m o t h e r ’ s i n o f c a r e t h ro ug h c a r r y i n g , l i t er al ly a n d
p ar ticular, play an integral role in her metaphorically, hold the world up.
practice. Weaving the cultural fabric of life
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and
and ritual into her canvases; Cross explores
the resultant rising rates of domestic
her heritage and the emotional wisdom that
violence carried out on women stuck at
caring for children opens up. The women
home with their perpetrators, this series is a
Cross depicts show their animal sexuality,
call to arms to witness, pay attention and to
their virulent fragility, their intimate bodies
hono u r women . S o u t h A f r i c a h a s b e en
of community and their profane strength,
reeling from outrageous figures of gender-
which motherhood has a hand in creating.
based-violence, with mass protests staged
The figures are almost grotesque, teetering
over the last few years, bringing more
on the edge of figuration and patterned
attention to the problem.
symbolism.
In a society that asks too much of women, to
Cross’s material paintings are full of
carry it all, to strap it to your back and carry
s y m b o l o g y t h a t m a ke s h i f t i n g r e c i p e ’ s
on, and to do it all. Cross offers this series as
defetishizing the matriarchal cosmology of
a celebration of the labour of love.
labour.
Grace Cross b. Harare, Zimbabwe 1988 Cross is a material painter who draws symbols about motherhood, home, belief structures, and land; making shifting recipe’s rooted in history, performative archaeology and African cosmology, to reflect her cultural transmission across national boundaries. Her work conjures a deep history, bringing transformative cultural wisdoms and materials together to erode, uncover, excavate and perforate boundaries of the motherland. Her childhood and young adulthood was spent between continents; she was brought up in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Greece, India and the USA. Her diverse upbringing informs her painting practice, where she fuses cultural storytelling, spirituality, and the archaeological mining of symbols in her loud and colourfilled canvases. She graduated with her MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2016 and holds a BFA from the Michaelis School of Art at the University of Cape Town, for which she was awarded the Judy Steiner painting prize in 2010. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions locally and abroad. Cross is a grant recipient from University of Illinois at Chicago and National Arts Council, South Africa. She has participated in many art fairs in South Africa and abroad, having a solo booth at Joburg Art Fair in 2016. She has works in the collections of the Africa First Collection, Spier Arts Trust and the University of Cape Town among others. Cross lives and works as a mother and painter in Cape Town.
GRACE CROSS
A Conference of Atlas’s, 2020
Oil on canvas
160 x 150cm
R32 000
“you create me against your thighs hilly with images moving through our word countries my body writes into your flesh” -audre lorde
GRACE CROSS
Atlas is a Woman (cheek to cheek), 2020
Oil on canvas
121 x 112cm
R23 000
GRACE CROSS
The Last Supper of Atlas’s, 2020
Oil, pastel and acrylic on canvas
71 x 151.5cm (framed)
R23 000
“My paintings seek to represent a cosmological world, where paint weaves images together to work as spells or incantations. The painted symbols thread my ideas together, darning and mending, compositionally sewing the symbolic to the real, tethering the objects to one another” -Grace Cross
GRACE CROSS
Bending Backwards Atlas, 2020
Oil, pastel, pencil and acrylic on canvas
102.5 x 77.5cm (framed)
R17 500GRACE CROSS
Atlas Letting the Weight Settle, 2020
Oil, pastel, pencil and acrylic on canvas
90 x 72.2cm (framed)
R17 000GRACE CROSS
Atlas Desires as Round as Peaches, 2020
Oil, pastel, pencil and acrylic on canvas
92.4 x 62.2cm (framed)
R17 000GRACE CROSS
She’s Got the Whole World on Her Back, 2020
Oil and gouache on canvas
77 x 52cm (framed)
R15 000GRACE CROSS
Atlas Sunrise, 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
60.6 x 43.1cm (framed)
R10 000“It is the red thread of fate – the bloodline that traces a history of labouring women. Placenta red, menstrual red, nipple-sucked-raw red. This is the tie that binds – an umbilical cord – the maternal line. The thread is fine but strong; it will not come undone; even as it unspools, running from the distant past to the present, from one canvas to another.” -Lucienne Bestall
GRACE CROSS
Atlas Half Moon, 2020
Oil, pastel, pencil and acrylic on canvas
60.5 x 43.3cm (framed)
R10 000GRACE CROSS
Wild Flowers Don’t Care Where They Grow, 2020
Oil on canvas
60.7 x 43.1cm (framed)
R12 000GRACE CROSS
Glory-Hole, 2020
Oil on canvas
31.5 x 24.4cm (framed)
R5 800GRACE CROSS
Intimacy of the Breastfed Ear Shell, 2020
Oil and acrylic on canvas
43.5 x 30.6cm (framed)
R6 200GRACE CROSS Intimacy of the Breastfed Ear, 2020 Watercolour, pastel, marker and charcoal on watercolor paper 40.5 x 30cm R3 500
GRACE CROSS
Atlas Platted in Gold, 2020
Pastel and watercolor on paper
47.5 x 35cm (framed)
R5 400GRACE CROSS
Atlas Letting the Weight Settle, 2020
Pencil, pastel and acrylic collage on paper
25 x 33cm (framed)
R3 500GRACE CROSS
Atlas Sunrise (sketch), 2020
Watercolour, pastel and charcoal on Fabriano paper
35 x 25cm
R4 000GRACE CROSS
A Conference of Atlas’s (Sketch), 2020
Watercolour, pastel and charcoal on watercolour paper
33 x 28cm
R3 000GRACE CROSS
Globe-Ass, 2019
Watercolour, pencil, pastel and charcoal on Fabriano paper
50 x 35cm
R4 000GRACE CROSS
Chain-Ass, 2020
Acrylic, pastel and watercolour on watercolour paper
40.5 x 29.5cm
R3 500GRACE CROSS Atlas Bend, 2020 Acrylic and pastel on watercolour paper 40.5 x 29.5cm R3 500
GRACE CROSS
Atlas New Foal, 2020
Acrylic, charcoal and pastel on orange paper
40.5 x 28cm
R3 000GRACE CROSS
Glor y-Hole, 2019
Watercolour and pastel on watercolour paper
40.5 x 29.5cm
R3 500GRACE CROSS
Atlas Swollen Swan, 2019
Watercolour collage on watercolour paper
42 x 27cm
R3 000GRACE CROSS
Splayed, 2019
Acrylic, pastel and pencil on watercolour paper
40.5 x 29.5cm
R2 700GRACE CROSS
Atlas is a sex worker, 2019
Acrylic on 100% cotton handmade paper
69 x 94cm
R6 500
GRACE CROSS
Atlas is a woman (present), 2019
Acrylic, pastel, charcoal and chalk on 100% cotton handmade paper
69 x 89cm
R6 500CV
Education
2016 MFA, Studio Arts, School of Art and Art History
University of Illinois, Chicago
2012 BAHons, English Language and Literature Honours
University of Cape Town
2011 Post-Grad Business Diploma, Business Acumen
Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
2010 BFA, Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Mother is a Drum, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2017 The Meal is Not the Menu, Smith Studio, CT
2016 Cave Canem, Solo Special Projects, FNB Art Fair, JHB
2016 A cavern, in the middle, a boiling cauldron, Gallery400, Chicago
2015 Pleasuring Ground, Smith Studio, Cape Town
Group Shows
2020 Peep Show, Cape Town [online}
2020 Kernel, curated by myself and Nabeeha Mohamed, CT
2020 Proxies, gallerygallery, Johannesburg
2019 Rendevous II, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2019 Rise, Anon Pop up, 44 Loop Street, Cape Town
2019 Bad Taste: Image in Crisis, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2018 Rendevous, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2018 Close Encounters, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2017 Nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town
2017 Salad, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2017 Another Antipodes/urban axis, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia
2017 Dear History: It’s Not Me, It’s You, LKB/G, Hamburg, Germany
2016 Exile Inside Out, Heaven Gallery, Chicago
2017 Hot House, 2nd Floor Rear Festival, Chicago, curated by myself and
Aaron Walker, an Uptool project
2017 Stovetop H/earth, Hairpin Art Center, Chicago, curated by Jesus Javier
part of the 2nd Floor Rear Festival
2017 Sketch, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2015 Not from Here, 70 Juta Street, Johannesburg
2015 Current, Smith Studio, Cape Town
2014 Bugatti Dreams Park Free, University of Illinois at Chicago
2013 Cube-Route: Beggin’ for Change, Cape Town, an Open Drawer Project
2012 {Impression : Sunset}, Salon91, Cape Town
2012 Fire Horizon, AfrikaBurn Festival, Tankwa Karoo, Open Drawer Project
2011 Part 1: The Drawing Room, Spin Space Gallery, Cape Town
2010 To Intervene in the Forest of Signs, Michaelis School of Fine Art, CT
2010 One Night Affair, A Word of Art Gallery, Cape TownAwards and Achievements
2015 Grant from Office of Sustainability, University of Illinois at Chicago, Uptool project
2014-5 Board of Trustees Fee Waiver, University of Illinois at Chicago
2013 Visual Art grant from National Arts Council South Africa for Cube-Route
an Open Drawer Project
2010 Awarded the Judy Steiner Painting Prize, Michaelis School of Fine Art
2010 Mentor Program at Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town
2007-10 Dean’s Merit List, University of Cape Town
2007 Golden Key Member, University of Cape Town
Auctions
2020 DOnation, Cape Town [online]
2019 Art Angels, Ellerman House, Cape Town
2019 Rise, Anon Popup, Cape Town
2019 Wavescape Festival, Black Jack’s Tap Room, Cape Town
2018 Art Angels, Ellerman House, Cape Town
2018 Salon Sale, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2017 Art Angels, Ellerman House, Cape Town
2016 Art Angels, Ellerman House, Cape Town
Art Fairs
2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2019 Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2018 FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2017 Also Known As Africa, AKAA, Paris, France
2017 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2016 Also Known As Africa, AKAA, Paris, France
2016 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town
2016 FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
Works in Collections
Africa First Collection
University of Cape Town
Nandos Arts Trust
Spier Arts Trust
Art AngelsALL PRICES EXCLUSIVE OF VAT FOR MORE INFORMATION Please contact Jana Terblanche for more information regarding the availability of the works included in this portfolio, or for any other queries. janababezterblanche@gmail.com | +27 76 601 8957 P3 | The Silo Hotel irene@thesilohotel.com Silo Square | V&A Waterfront +27 21 670 0500 8001 www.theroyalportfolio.com
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