Emeritus Associate Professor Virginia MacKenny

Emeritus Associate Professor

Virginia MacKenny, Emeritus Associate Professor in Painting at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, is a practicing artist, writer and curator. She is interested in contemporary South African art with a special emphasis on painting, video and performance art, with particular reference to gender and environmental concerns.

 

With 9 solo exhibitions under her belt, she has received  a number of awards including the Volkskas Atelier Award (1991), the Ampersand Fellowship in New York (2004) and a Donald Gordon Creative Arts Award (2010). Included in '1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective' at Iziko National Gallery and in Michael Godby’s 'Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African Landscape' (2010), Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town, MacKenny’s interest in expanding the vocabulary of landscape painting into environmental concerns is ongoing. A co-founding member of COPART - an artists’ initiative concerned with raising awareness on climate change for COP17 held in Durban, she shortly thereafter curated 'Threshold' (2011), a multimedia exhibition dedicated to environmental issues.  In 2012 she produced a ‘performance without an audience’ – a 700km walk along the Chemin de St Jacques across France - a literal act of grounding it was dedicated “to the Earth and all living beings on her”.  The resultant exhibition ‘Waymarker’ (2012) at David Krut Projects Cape Town included 36 watercolours made as part of a daily practice.

 

Solo exhibitions 'At Sand's Edge' (2017) and ‘Strand/Shore’ (2021) both at Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, engage the liminal terrain of environmental and societal erosion through reengaging the tradition of landscape painting. An illustrated children’s book for adults, The NearandFar Tree, set on the coastline between Cape Town and Namibia, speaks to the possibility of connection in disconnected times. In 2021, invited to participate in Living-Language-Land a British Council Commission for COP 26, Glasgow, a journey through endangered and minority languages that reveal different ways of relating to land and nature, she collaborated with First Nation’s award-winning playwright and filmmaker Sylvia Vollenhoven in a video exploring the Bushman word |Xau – ‘to shoot with a magical arrow. In 2021 she curated Margaret Courtney-Clarke’s When Tears Don’t Matter at IKhwa ttu, San Cultural Heritage Centre, Yzerfontein, Western Cape and Courtney-Clarke’s museum show Dust on the Wind, , commissioned by OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH,  in Linz, Austria. This exhibition engaged the southern African context, especially Namibia, where climate change is intensifying weather patterns and extended droughts are increasingly jeopardising people’s and non-human animals’ capacity to survive.

 

A writer, and critic, she continues to support contemporary visual arts discourse in SA by writing catalogue essays, journal articles and exhibition texts.   She was a KZN editor for www.artthrob.co.za in the 80s and 90s, and an invited writer for Sophie Perryer’s '10 Years 100 Artists – Art in a Democratic South Africa' (2004). In 2006 she co-curated with Gabi Ngcobo 'Second to None' an exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March on Pretoria to protest the pass laws, for Iziko South African National Gallery. She has presented papers on aspects of South African contemporary art practice at conferences in Mumbai, Paris, London’s Tate, Copenhagen, Madrid and UCLA in Los Angeles. She contributed a chapter with Professor Lesley Green to The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change TJ Demos (ed) (2021) ‘Extracting the Cost: Re-membering the Discarded in African Landscapes’. One of the founding members of the University of Cape Town's interdisciplinary Environmental Humanities South postgraduate degree she continues to explore the efficacy of visual arts in environmental justice.

 

MacKenny also continues to contribute to public dialogues on art and environmental concerns – in 2022 she worked with Business Art South Africa on their Climate/Culture platform of videos speaking on Southern African artists’ use of soil in their practices and its connection to land rights https://climateculture.basa.co.za , and in 2023 at the invitation of Art School Africa, a Harvard-affiliated NGO, she gave a walkabout engaging environmental concerns in the Investec Cape Town Art Fair.

 

 

 

               

AWARDS

 

  • 2010 Donald Gordon Creative Arts Award
  • 2004 Ampersand Fellowship, New York
  • 1996 All Things Digital – 1st prize
  • 1991 Volkskas Atelier – 1st prize
  • 1979 New Signatures – merit award winner

 

 

                                   

 

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

  1.        Strand/Shore, solo, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

           United Nations Climate Change Conference
           (COP 26) Living Languages Land project commissioned by
           British Arts Council, |Xau collaborative video animation
           project with Sylvia Vollenhoven (First Nations’ poet and
           writer).

2019        Ampersand Foundation 21 Year Celebration, University of
                Johannesburg Gallery, Kingsway Campus, Johannesburg

2017        Sand’s Edge, solo, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

2015        Absa L’Atelier: 30 Jaar retrospective ABSA KKNK, Oudtshoorn

2014        Blood, Sweat and Tears ABSA Johannesburg

2013        Sous Nos Yeux (part 1) curated by Abdellah Karroum, Invited
                artist on ‘Believe Half of What You See And None of What You
                Hear’, conceived by Georgia Kotretsos, as part of the project  at 
                La Kunsthalle of Mulhouse, in collaboration with the University
                Haute-Alsace, France. 

2012        Waymarker solo, David Krut Projects, Montebello Design Centre,
                Cape Town

2010        1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective curator Riason Naidoo
                Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town

  •        Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African
           Landscape curator Michael Godby, Iziko Michaelis
           Collection, Old Town House, Cape Town

2009        Crossing solo, David Krut, Johannesburg

2008        Foam Along the Waterline solo, Irma Stern Museum, University
                of Cape Town

2005        Surface, invited artist for group painting exhibition with
                Moshekwa Langa, Luan Nel, Dorothy Kreutzfeldt and others
                curated by Lara Riviera at Franchise gallery, Johannesburg

2003        Videobrasil  - invited artist South Africa, curated by Miguel
                Petchovsky, Andries Botha, Sao Paulo, Brazil

                Sleepers – Sightlines solo N.S.A. Gallery, Durban

1996        Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg

1995-6    Gay Rights, Rites, Re-writes, selected National touring show,
               Martin Melkhuis, Cape Town; Oliewenhuis Art Museum,
               Bloemfontein; Gertrude Posel Gallery, University Witswatersrand,
               Johannesburg 

1995        Past Forms, solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1991        Volkskas Atelier, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg

                                                                                         

 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town; University of Cape Town collection, Cape Town; Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; Durban University of Technology, Durban; Durban Art Gallery, Durban; Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle (S.A.); Corporate collections: Anglo-American, Johannesburg; SASOL, Johannesburg; SANLAM, Cape Town; Spier, Stellensbosch.

 

 

SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS:

2024        Dust on the Wind, Margaret Courtney-Clarke solo,
                commissioned by OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, Linz, Austria

2021        When Tears Don’t Matter, Margaret Courtney-Clarke solo, IKhwa
                ttu, San Cultural Heritage Centre, Yzerfontein, Western Cape (in
                collaboration with SMAC gallery)

2020        Desert Narratives photographic portfolio from Margaret
                Courtney-Clarke’s Cry Sadness into the Coming Rain

                Neil Overy - Zones of Dissonance: Cape Town, Koeberg &
                Nuclearity (Jan 23-Feb27)  AVA Gallery, Cape Town

2019        Michaelis Staff Exhibition, co-curated with Stephen Inggs.
                Michaelis School of Fine Art Gallery, University of Cape Town                            

2018        Siyakhula Michaelis Art Auction co-curator with Nadja Danke,
                Michaelis School of Fine Art Gallery, University of Cape Town

2011        Threshold - Climate Change and Environmental Concerns an
                exhibition of environmentally engaged artists from South Africa,
                Michaelis School of Fine Art Gallery, University of Cape Town     

2006        Second to None, guest co-curator with Gabi Ngcobo for an
                exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Women’s
                March on Pretoria to protest the pass laws, for Iziko South
                African National Gallery, Cape Town

2005        Twist in the Tale, with artists Carol-anne Gainer, Greg Streak and
                Mikhael Subotzky, invited independent curator for Klein Karoo
                Kunstfestival (KKNK), Oudtshoorn, Karoo

2003        Homing In - Emerging Artists, Invited co-curator with Paul
                Edmunds of Grahamstown National Arts Festival

 

 

Publications

Catalogues/books/selected articles:

 

ARTICLES IN ACCREDITED JOURNALS: (‘Art South Africa’ - DoE accredited)

2021        ‘Re-Turning the Land: Soil and Cultivating Connection in Contemporary Art in Southern Africa’ Global South 14.2 (pp. 85-109) Fall 2020 Special Issue Cultures of Cultivation Guest Editor Sarah L. Lincoln Indiana University Press https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/799515

2013        ‘Land Matters’ in Art South Africa Vol11 Issue 04 Winter 2013 (p42-45)

  • ‘Waymarker – a Painter’s Notes’ in Art South Africa Vol11 Issue 03 Autumn 2013

2011        ‘Vacated Spaces – South African Watercolour’ for Art South Africa (p78-79 in special edition section p62-85) Volume: 09 Issue: 04 ISSN No.: 16846133

2001        ‘Re-presenting Identity - Post-Apartheid South African Performance Art as a Site for Gender Resistance - an examination of the work of Carol-anne Gainer and Tracey Rose’ in - Culture - Transgressing Boundaries’ in Agenda # 49, 2001

 

SELECTED CATALOGUES/BOOKS:

2021        Foreword to When Tears Don’t Matter Margaret Courtney Clarke (ISBN 978-3-95829-877-4 Steidl: Germany)           

  • ‘Extracting the Cost: Re-membering the Discarded in African Landscapes’ Chapter 1 in The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change TJ Demos (ed) (2021) ISBN 9780429321108
  • NearandFar Tree (ISBN: 978-0-620-94279-9) text and images for illustrated children’s book for adults included in Strand/ Shore exhibition (Quiver Tree Press, Cape Town)
  • Field Notes accompanying text to solo Strand/Shore (Barnard publication)
  • ‘Unanticipated Intimacies: A Collective Writing Experiment’ in Mix and Stir – New Outlooks on Contemporary Art from Global Perspectives Editors: Helen Westgeest & Kitty Zijlmans (2021) Valiz, Amsterdam. ISBN 978-94-93246-05-8

2020        ‘Ledelle Moe - Spoils of History’ for ‘Ledelle Moe – When?”, at MASS MoCA Massachusetts, USA

2017        ‘At Sand’s Edge’ essay for own solo exhibition catalogue ‘At Sand’s Edge’ (Barnard Gallery)

  • ‘Offering a Flower – the work of Kai Lossgott’ (Barclay’s L’Atelier Award winner 2015) for catalogue essay for solo hunter-gatherer at ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg

2016        ‘Hanging on a Wire – Photographs by Sophie Klaase’ Edited by Rick Rohde and Siona O’Connell Foreword by Zoë Wicomb, essays by Rick Rohde, Virginia MacKenny, Timm Hoffman, Ben Cousins and Siona O’Connell, Fourthwall Books 2016 ISBN 978-0-9922404-3-1

2014        ‘Yonder – Beyond What One Can See’ in Lien Botha’s catalogue, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

  • ‘Glass of Water’ in Object Relations – Essays and Images’ Stephen Inggs (ed. and photographer), Michaelis Press, Cape Town ISBN 978-0-620-63500-4 (p58-60)

2011        ‘Bearded Ladies’ in Pogonology - Malcolm Payne: Paintings 2007-2010 Axe Age Press, Cape Town (p10-17)(ISBN 978-0-7992-2474-0)

2010        ‘Topographies of History and Place’ Thomas Barry’s ‘Hearts and Minds’ (ISBN 978-0-9826647-1-1) for Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Hall Street Gallery, 212 W. Hall St., Savannah, Ga. For symposium: Africa on My Mind: Contemporary Art, Home and Abroad

 

Conferences

  • 2018        Greening Keening the Edge European Society of Literature, Science and Arts Conference held at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Re-Turning the Land American Comparative Literature Association Conference (ACLA), University of California, Los Angeles, United States
  • 2011 Grounding Ourselves at ‘Reading Nature’ conference, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 2011 Vacated Spaces – South African Watercolour for ‘Space, Ritual, Absence: Liminality in South African Visual Art’ Colloquium presented by the Research Centre Visual Identities in Art and Design (VIAD), Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), University of Johannesburg
  • 2010 Blue – a Shifting Horizon invited speaker for Colour Colloquium, Fine Art Department, University of Rhodes, Grahamstown
  • 2010 Painting – the Expanded Field for ‘Pre-Post-Per-Form – a Colloquium to Explore Interdisciplinary and Performance Art’ Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), UCT, Cape Town
  • 2009 Contemporary Painting – Confronting Tradition for Friends of the Michaelis Collection
  • 2006 The Earth is Flat – Prevarications from a Precarious Edge invited speaker on own work in ‘Via Mumbai – Multiple Cultures in a Globalising World’ at Mohile Parikh Centre for the Visual Arts, Mumbai, India
  • 2006 Inside Out: Inner Needs and Exterior Demands in the Training of Young Artists in a Young South African Democracy invited keynote paper at International Association of Art Critics (AICA), Paris
  • 2002 Materiality and Identity in South African Contemporary Sculpture Royal College of Art, London Indecent Public Exposure – Steven Cohen and the Transgression of Boundaries paper delivered at ‘Beyond the Gallery – Art in Public Spaces’ conference, a Public Eye event at Cape Technikon, Cape Town
  • 2000 Re-Presenting Identities – Performance Art in South Africa Post-Apartheid, AICA Conference, Tate Modern, London
  • 2000 Centering Ourselves Marginally/Marginally Centring Ourselves, at ‘Open Circuit’ – a Pulse initative conference in collaboration with RAIN (Rijksakademie International Network), Technikon Natal, Durban

 

Selected texts are available online, visit this Virginia MacKenny page.

 

Collections

  • Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town
  • University of Cape Town collection
  • Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg
  • Durban University of Technology, Durban
  • Durban Art Gallery, Durban
  • Newcastle Art Gallery, Newcastle, (S.A.)

Corporate collections:

  • Anglo-American, Johannesburg
  • SASOL, Johannesburg
  • SANLAM, Cape Town