Gabrielle Goliath

WITSIES WITH THE EDGE

GABRIELLE GOLIATH

BAFA 2008, MAFA 2011

Gabrielle Goliath (BAFA 2008, MAFA 2011) is the latest in a line of Witsies to have been chosen as a Standard Bank Young Artist. Representing the visual arts category for 2019, she follows the likes of William Kentridge (BA 1977, LLD honoris causa 2004), Jane Alexander (BAFA 1983, MAFA 1989) and Kemang wa Lehulere (BAFA 2012).

Her work focuses on gendered and sexualised violence. “Art gives us the means, when language and conventional therapy fail us, to work through these things,” she says.

Elegy, for example, is a collection of work commemorating individuals who have been subjected to violence. Stumbling Block is a blanket-wrapped human form lying on cardboard in a public space and invites interaction from people in the space.