Grace Cross (b. Zimbabwe 1988) is a trans-global material painter who enactments symbols that represent questions about home and land, about assumed gender roles in the domestic sphere, and about security of space today for the foreign body. The material interplay of Cross’s work makes shifting recipe’s rooted in history and African cosmology, to reflect her cultural transmission across national boundaries. Drawing images through fibre and paint, that have been excavated in part from the past, creates a present generative site. Her work conjures a deep history, bringing transformative cultural wisdoms and materials together to excavate and perforate boundaries of the ‘homeland’.
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 for Artists
Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
2010 BFA, Michaelis School of Fine Art
University of Cape Town
Solo Exhibitions
2016 Cave Canem, Solo Special Projects, FNB Art Fair, Johannesburg
A cavern, in the middle, a boiling cauldron, Gallery400, Chicago
2015 Pleasuring Ground, Smith Studio, Cape Town
Group Shows
2016 Ellerman House Art Angels auction, Cape Town
Exile Inside Out, Heaven Gallery, Chicago
Hot House, 2nd Floor Rear Festival, Chicago, curated by myself and Aaron Walker, an Uptool project.
Stovetop H/earth, Hairpin Art Center, Chicago, curated by Jesus Javier, part of the 2nd Floor Rear Festival
Sketch, Smith Studio, Cape Town, curated by Amy Ellenbogen
2015 Not from Here, 70 Juta Street, Johannesburg
Current, Smith Studio, Cape Town, curated by Amy Ellenbogen
2014 Bugatti Dreams Park Free, University of Illinois at Chicago
2013 Cube-Route: Beggin’ for Change, an Open Drawer Projects project
2012 {Impression : Sunset}, Salon91, Cape Town, curated by Monique du Preez
2012 Fire Horizon, AfrikaBurn Festival, Tankwa Karoo, an Open Drawer Projects 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, Cape Town
2010 One Night Affair, A Word of Art Gallery, Cape Town
Awards & Acheivements
2015 Grant from Office of Sustainability, University of Illinois at Chicago, for 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 Co- 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
Professional Memberships
Member of the Femme Gems, an interdisciplinary fierce, feminist artist collective with Liz Cambron, Sara Condo and Rachel Glass.
Co-founder of Uptool with Aaron Walker; an art programming series inside the University of Illinois at Chicago's Greenhouse and Plant Research Laboratory. The program serves to highlight the work of cultural producers who find themselves on the edges of anthropology, ecology and the arts, through informal thematic lectures, screenings and demonstrations held within underused portions of the facility.
uptool.org / uptoollab@gmail.com
Co-founder of Open Drawer Projects an artist collective with Io Makandal, Jessie Hammond and Sammantha McCulloch. Open Drawer Projects is a collective concerned with investigating the contemporary drawing mark within South Africa through experimental art making.
theopendrawerproject.blogspot.com
Works in Collections
University of Cape Town
Nandos Arts Trust
Spier Arts Trust
Art Angels