South African painter and intermedia artist
Pauline Gutter The Free State-based South African painter and intermedia artist, Pauline Gutter, was born in 1980. Her current studio is based on a farm in the south eastern outskirts of Bloemfontein. She obtained her B.A. Degree in Fine Arts (cum laude for painting) at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa and was awarded Honours Colours in Arts and Culture from the same university. She is the winner of the prestigious 2013 ABSA L`Atelier competition and was awarded the Helgaard Steyn Award for painting in 2011. In 2012 she received the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans Award. Gutter’s works are included in numerous museums and corporate collections - amongst them, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (France), V & A Collection, London (UK), Luciano Benetton Collection (Italy), Oliewenhuis Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch, North-West University, University of the Free State, William Humphreys permanent collection, Standard Bank, MTN Foundation, Sanlam, ABSA Corporate Collection and ATKV Collection. She will also be a part of the Dak’Art 2022 Biennale de L’Art African Contemporain. She regularly travels to residencies locally and abroad; amongst them the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, the Atelier le Grande Village in Massignac in the south of France and the AFSACSA-residency in Saint Emilion, France and Knysna, South Africa. Her solo exhibitions include her show titled “Stand’ in 2010 at the Potchefstroom Aardklop festival; “The Last of Us” (2012-2013), which showed at William Humphreys Art Gallery, Potchefstroom, Oliewenhuis Art Museum Reservoir, Bloemfontein and KKNK, Oudtshoorn; “Purgatorium” in 2015 as the winner of the ABSA L’Atelier, and her recent show, “Primordial”, which was shown at the UJ Gallery in 2021.
Through mark making I try to capture the spirit and essence of a place. I spend a lot of time making live drawings or sketches in the landscape. This serves as research to unearth ancient knowledge in equilibrium with nature. Pauline Gutter
In Gutter’s paintings, lithographs and charcoal drawings, it is the drive to overcome cultural division and connect us to a deeper source that matters most. A metaphysician, and existentialist, a lover of the inconsolable wonder that is life, Gutter triggers what we repress, and asks us to live more fully inside the great perplexity of life. Ashraf Jamal | Primordial
Environmentally we risk being the first species to create our own mass extinction. Psychologically and sociologically, we are already a different species where hypersensitivity, depression and anxiety rule the day. Even our bodies have changed: with limited access to physical mobility and ever increasing acces to “modern conveniences”, we are more fragile and less robust than our ancestors. All this has led to a significant shift in how we act, see, look, make and think. I love to be physically immersed in my art practice and this is reflected in my current work through processes of large mark-making and the building up of layers, thereby embodying movement and gesture upon a surface. In revolt against the strictures and confinement of our present condition, I celebrate movement, shifts in place and space, while reflecting upon the idea of people leaving and people coming back. My emphasis on fire, desiccation, disembowelment and degradation is another form of response to the fact that “the world has changed”. Our interaction with the world has become superficial and interrupted where so much is competing for human attention. In this exhibition, the focus is on the natural world, be it in a majestic or destructive way. Here I am interested in nature; in magical ley lines and in a time that was slower and, in the end, so much more human, while at the same time innately elemental.
Lima (2020) Charcoal on 300 gsm BFK Reeves 78 3/4 in x 42 1/8 in
Rhino dung beetle (2020) Charcoal and pigment on 300 gsm BFK Reeves 78 3/4 in x 42 1/8 in
Social Confinement (2020) Charcoal, masking liquid on 300gsm BFK Reeves 78 3/4 in x 42 1/8 in
Fluffy structure and the finger of judgement I (2021) One colour lithography, AP 1 (Edition of 15) 39 3/8 in x 33 1/2 in
Infant (2021) One colour lithography, AP 1 (Edition of 15) 10 1/2 in x 14 3/8 in
Tilling (2020) Charcoal, masking liquid and oilbar on 300 gsm BFK Reeves 78 3/4 in x 42 1/8 in
Family portrait (2015) Oil on flax linen 58 1/4 in x 70 in
Powerplay (2018 – 2020) Oil on Jute 70 7/8 in x 106 5/8 in
The uprising (2017) Oil and bitumen on flax linen 94 1/2 in x 66 7/8 in
Aftermath (2017) Oil on flax linen 71 5/8 in x 51 1/8 in
Vulture and the hyenas (2018 - 2020) Oil on Belgium linen 74 7/8 in x 43 2/8 in
Alfa (2018) Oil on jute 47 1/4 in x 47 1/4 in
Landscape North of Knysna (2020 – 2021) Oil on flax linen 39 3/8 in x 31 1/2 in
Veldbrande en verkalking (2019) Oil, gesso, charcoal and oilbar on flax linen 33 1/2 in x 45 1/4 in
Interview
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Curriculum Vitae Kindly follow these links for more information on Pauline Gutter
Click here to view Pauline’s CV
Virtual Exhibition: Primordial
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Exhibition Catalogue: Purgatorium Exhibition Catalogue: Stand
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