mandy johnston

About the Artist:

Mandy Johnston is a practicing visual artist who currently lives in Cape town, South Africa. She was awarded a Master’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2003. Since then, Johnston has worked and collaborated on various inner-city art related projects and initiatives. The latest of these being Assemblage (an arts facilitation organisation) and the Artist Career development program.

Johnston has presented 6 solo exhibitions and taken part in many group exhibitions. Her works are part of multiple corporate and private collections. Notably, works for the group show held at the Johannesburg art gallery titled "Negotiate" were commissioned by the "Makeshift" project, initiated by the Joubert Park Project and Canadian National Art Gallery. Johnston is currently working on a new body of work while mentoring young artists

Mandy talks about her work, “I am interested in the notion that things are often defined by their antithesis and that often the formation of a value is around the threat of absence. There is pain and fear associated with absence with a thing that once filled space literally or figuratively, now open and vulnerable to be absorbed, used, ignored or quoted. In this, there is also opportunity for reflection, renewal and rebirth. My work almost always refers to a specific historical and cultural context. I use materials for the contextual values, definitions and symbolisms they bring. I am currently interested in the experiential, visceral responses to works of art and am in search of its recipe.”

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2019 KKNK25: SPUN (2019) Outschoorn and reshowing Pretoria

2018 Lizamore and Associates gallery: Reasons for Silence

2016 Absa Gallery JHB: In the Presence of Absence

2012 Room: Subject to Change, 12 mixed media vessels

2002 Bag factory studios, Masters Johannesburg.

Other exhibitions

2020 Everard Read l Circa cubical series, Back to back : They faced each other. Two person show in conversation with Cow Mash

2019 Lizamore and Associates gallery, JHB Hindsight, Two person show in conversation with Cow Mash

2019 Salt, Trent gallery PTR

2019 Spun, reshowing in Pretoria overlooking union buildings

2019 Platform 13, Fish Hoek,' Precarious winter's tales of earth, wind, fire and rain’

2016 Absa Gallery JHB: Curator/Creator. Curated by Lucia Boer. Pinhole works.

2016 Everard Reed: Ct. Material City, Paper sculptures, Salt works and prints/ ink drawings

2016 Art room JHB: Here be dragons, Salt Prints. Cloud I, II, III. Turbine Hall Art Fair

2016 Assemblage: monotype exhibition 2016, Drypoint -monotypes “untitled”

2016 KKNK: Catalyst curated by Lucia Boer. Pinhole drawings. “Fabrication, The body, the façade, the architect.”

2016 KKNK: The Spaces Between Maps | Kartografeer Tussen die Kaarte'. Curated by Stephan Erasmus. Cyanotype drawings. “o’s and x’s”

2015 Open @Open, A group exhibition curated by Lucia Boer. Cyanotypes and sculptures

2015 Lizamore gallery @ Turbine Hall Art Fair, “Mnemiopsis leiyde” series of sculptures in copper wire and shadow 20 x 15cm and 2 series of cyanotypes 20 x 20cm.

2015 Kalashnikovv Gallery in association with Constitution Hill, 'On The Back of His Words'. Kingfish Pinhole drawing

2015 PPC sculptor’s awards “Caste” cement and steel pins.

2015 Materiality “Ouroborus I – XI”, Inhale I, II, III.

2014 Absa Gallery. Assemblage group exhibition. Degrees of Separation 2014, “Degrees of Separation”, series of sculptures in copper wire

2014 Turbine Hall Art Fair, “Ouroborus I and II” Concept sketches in copper wire on paper. 630 X 760mm

2014 Nirox Sculpture fair, “Duality”, Copper 6.5 x 6.5m with extension cables.

2014 Bayliss Gallery, “Exorcising the Fetish” Triptych. Monoprints and oil paint

2014 Absa Atelier, Absa Gallery, “Ouroborus” and “Exorcising the Fetish” Triptych. Mixed media sculptures.

2013 Diptych Assemblage: Group exhibition, Salt drawing and Marquette sculpture “A Negotiation” A collaboration with Sandile Radebe. (2013). 2 x 2.5m.

2013 Absa Atelier, “Fabricated”, pin holes in Fabriano 50% cotton rag paper.

2013 Turbine Hall Art Fair 2013 “Dutiful object II: Oroborous” copper wire

2013 KKNK, 29 march “Dutiful object II: Oroborous” copper wire