Goodman Gallery is pleased to host Transcend, an exhibition of new drawings, lithographs, and etchings by Diane Victor. The works presented in this exhibition convey a strong sense of moving on, crossing boundaries, and leaving behind old ideas. The visual language is familiar but the works offer new interpretations of well-tried themes. Transcend signals a vital infusion of energy into the work of an already accomplished artist.
The exhibition includes several long-awaited additions to Victor’s ongoing series Disasters of Peace. These searing etchings continue Victor’s commentary on society and its ills but introduce new imagery and concerns: horses as symbols of potency and spirituality figure strongly. They are powerful, charging creatures, carrying unusual passengers. Their presence in the works suggests a fresh symbolic approach from Victor, though not without her signature absurdist humour.
Also included are two groups of new drawings. The first series continues Victor’s acute observations of the human body. The frank renditions of human subjects show us the body as a document, a record of actions and the effects of time on flesh. For these, Victor uses a powdered mixture of ash and charcoal to create a delicate surface on paper. The ash is the residue of burned willow wood and copies of old books like War and Peace, Ulysses, and Great Expectations, so that Victor’s method is a literal reconstitution of histories. She has used stencils and fixatives to make new narratives out of old, combining the unpredictability of dust with careful technical control of the material. The words ashes to ashes and dust to dust come to mind and are given substance in this treatment of loss and decay.
Artworks
About
Diane Victor
Diane Victor (b. 1964 in Witbank, South Africa) has established herself as a major figure in the South African and International art communities and is renowned for her expert printmaking and draughtsmanship. Victor positions herself within the South African art scene through her bold confrontations with difficult and at times taboo subject matter. Her large scale drawings and etchings demonstrate a command of mark-making, which she uses to render her subjects in affecting detail. At times, her work seems to pose challenges to social and political life in contemporary South Africa, considering issues of corruption, violence and an unequal power distribution.
Having received her BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, with a major in Printmaking, and graduating with distinction – Victor has gone on to win various prestige awards including the Sasol New Signatures Award in 1987. In 1988, Victor became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Volkskas Atelier Award which granted her a ten-month stay at the Cité Internationale des Artes in Paris, France. Over this period, Victor was able to work collaboratively with other experienced printmakers and to observe and reflect on a society very different from her own.
Victor has exhibited at numerous venues around South Africa and internationally, some of which include the UNISA Gallery, Fried Contemporary, MoMA New York, Faulconer Gallery, The Highpoint Center for printmaking, The Gus Fisher Gallery, National Museum of Contemporary Art Oslo, Yale University Art Gallery, The Contemporary Museum Honolulu, and Australia and Adelaide Central Gallery. Victor’s work is part of a number of important collections, including Sasol, Pretoria Art Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Museum and Santam.
Since 1990, Victor has been a lecturer, teaching Fine Art, at various South African institutions including the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, Open Window Academy, the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.
Victor lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. At present, she is a senior Fine Art lecturer at the University of Pretoria’s Department of Visual Art.
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