Georgina Gratrix
Georgina Gratrix was born in Mexico City in 1982 and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, and graduated in 2005, specialising in painting. In 2018, Gratrix was awarded the Discovery Prize at the 50th Anniversary edition of Art Brussels, for her presentation with SMAC Gallery in Brussels, Belgium. Gratrix is a recipient of the Ampersand Fellowship Award and completed a residency at the Ampersand Foundation in New York City, USA in 2018.
In 2021, Gratrix presented her first museum exhibition at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town entitled Georgina Gratrix: The Reunion, as well as her first solo presentation in Durban at the KZNSA Gallery entitled THIS MUST BE THE PLACE. Further solo exhibitions include: The Pleasure is Mine and Nine Weeks, at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles, USA, in 2020; On Repeat, at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, in 2018; Puppy Love at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, in 2016; The Berlin Paintings at Die Tankstelle in association with Nolan Judin Gallery in Berlin, Germany, in 2013; and My Show in 2012 at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch.
Notable recent group exhibitions include: Punch, curated by Nina Chanel Abney, at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in Los Angeles, USA and Skin Stealers at Nicodim Gallery in Los Angeles, both in 2019; Thinking, Feeling, Head, Heart at the New Church Museum in Cape Town, South Africa in 2015; PAPERWORK: An Exhibition of Contemporary South African Works on Paper at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch in 2014; The Beautyful Ones at Nolan Judin Gallery in Berlin, Germany, in 2013 and Dialogues with Masters: Visual Perspectives on Two Decades of Democracy, a curated exhibition for the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair. Her work was also included in 1910- 2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010 and Fresh Fruits at Ten Haaf Projects in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2009.
Gratrix has presented solo booths at The Armory Show in New York City in 2020, Art Brussels in Brussels, Belgium and artmonte-carlo in Monte Carlo, Monaco, both in 2019, and Miart in Milan, Italy in 2017. SMAC Gallery has produced two publications on the artist, Georgina Gratrix (2016) and Some New Paintings by Georgina Gratrix (2018), as well as two publications in collaboration with the Norval Foundation, The Reunion: Georgina Gratrix and Nine Weeks: Georgina Gratrix, both in 2021.
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