Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum | Battlecry
Goodman Gallery presents Battlecry, an exhibition of large-scale paintings on wood panel which marks Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s first solo exhibition with Goodman Gallery. The exhibition follows Sunstrum’s first major museum show at Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, US.
Battlecry explores Sunstrum’s interest in archetypes originating in classical mythology, which the artist translates into a cast of characters and alter egos that recur throughout her practice. Sunstrum nuances these mythological archetypes with a focus on “the hero”: “In this latest body of work, I am interested in the fragility of the hero; the ways in which the hero is both heroic and anti-heroic; both a victor and a perpetrator who can experience violence but also cause violence. I am interested in the moment when the hero, despite being on the field of battle, cannot help but become soft, must go inward, must cry.”
Sunstrum layers visual information using pencil and oil paint to create imagery that exists as a rich “collection of citations – building a code into the meaning of the work”. These citations include (post)-colonial portraiture as well as intertextual conversations with art historical works, such as Robert S. Duncanson’s early 19th century romanticist landscape paintings. These references are further enriched by Sunstrum’s experiences with nature and science, encompassing a developing journey of self-discovery:
Artworks
Films
About
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s (b. 1980, Mochudi, Botswana) work alludes to mythology, geology and theories on the nature of the universe. Her work includes imagery that reflects the diverse genealogies of her experience living in different parts of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the U.S. as well as ongoing research in ethnography, ecology, and quantum physics. The artist’s boundary-crossing practice centres Black female identity in the discourse of postcolonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting the contributions of overlooked historical figures while emphasising modes of knowledge and communication beyond the status quo.
In 2024, a major new solo exhibition opened at KM21 Den Haag, including a new large scale diptych painting within an installation that included items from the museum’s furniture collection. Sunstrum also presented her first solo exhibition titled ‘It Will End in Tears’, at a major UK institution, the Barbican Centre’s The Curve. Sunstrum took her life-size wood grain panoramas round the bend of the gallery, building a narrativised sequence with elements of film noir, crime fiction and pure drama.
Recent solo exhibitions include: It Will End In Tears, Barbican London, UK (2024); You’ll be sorry, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2023), The Pavillion, London Mithraeum, Bloomberg SPACE, London (2023); All my seven faces, Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati (2019); Michaelis School for the Arts at the University of Cape Town (2018); Interlochen Centre for the Arts, Interlochen (2016).
Group exhibitions and biennales include: Born in Flames: Feminist Futures, The Bronx Museum of the Arts NY, USA (2021); WITNESS: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Miami, USA (2020).
Collections include: Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, Hessel Museum at Bard College, New York, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town; The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; University of Cape Town, Cape Town; Deutsche Bank Collection, Frankfurt; El Espacio 23, Miami; FRAC des Pays de la Loire Contemporary Collection, Carquefou; University of South Africa (UNISA) Art Collection.
Sunstrum lives and works in The Hague, Netherlands.
Download full CV