Born in Lichfield, England in 1941. Her family emigrated to South Africa in 1948. She lives and works in Cape Town.

 

 

ART EDUCATION

 

1983 Advanced diploma in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town

1965-69 Art Students League of New York

 

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UPCOMING

​​

2025  Opening exhibition of the Fenix Museum, Rotterdam

2025  Sue Williamson Retrospective, Iziko South African National Gallery

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Solo Exhibitions

​

2024 Short Stories in a Longer Tale, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

2023  Other Voices, Other Cities, CAAM, Las Palmas, Spain

2023  Turning the Pages, Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch, Cape Town

2023 Between Memory and Forgetting, The Box Museum, Plymouth UK

2022 All our Mother’s, Goodman Gallery, London

2021 Testimony_, Goodman Gallery, London

2021 Postcards from Africa_, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town

2020 Pages from the South, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris

2019 That particular morning, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

2017 Messages from the Atlantic Passage, Installation, Art Basel Unlimited, Basel Switzerland

2017 Sue Williamson: Other Voice, Other Cities, Shrine Empire Gallery, New Delhi, India

2017 Can’t Remember, Can’t Forget, George Bizos Gallery at the Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, SA

2015 Other Voices, Other Cities, SCAD Art Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

2016 The Past Lies Ahead, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Other Voices, Other Cities, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA

2014 There’s something I must tell you, Iziko Slave Lodge, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 All Our Mothers Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa

2012 The Mothers: a 31 Year Chronicle, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2011 Voices, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 Other Voices, Other Cities, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2009 The Truth is on the Walls, Wilfredo Lam Centre, Havana, 10th Havana Biennale, Cuba

2007 Hotels and Better Lives, Wertz Gallery, Atlanta, USA

2005 Hotels and Better Lives, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2004 Messages from the Moat, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2003 Sue Williamson: Selected Work, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels, Belgium

2002 From the Inside, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2002 The Last Supper Revisited, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.,  

         USA

2001 Can’t forget, can’t remember, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2000 Messages from the Moat, Archive Building,Den Haag, Netherlands

1998 Truth Games, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1994 Out of the Ashes, Fortaleza de la Cabana, 5th Havana Biennale, Cuba

1994 For Thirty Years Next to his Heart, North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks, USA

1993 Sue Williamson: New work, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg

1993 The Last Supper Revisited, Oiiewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

1993 The Last Supper Revisited, Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

1987-9 A Few South Africans, Visual Art Resources of the University of Oregon. Canadian and USA tour

1985 A Few South Africans, Market Gallery, Johannesburg

1985 A Few South Africans, University of Oregon, Eugene, USA

1984 A Few South Africans, Gallery International, Cape Town

1981 The Last Supper, Gowlett Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

 

Group Exhibitions

 

2024-5 Narrative Wisdom and African Arts, Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, USA
2024 Home and the World, Van Loon Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2023-4 Un histoire d'Images Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France
2023-4 Landing, Goodman Gallery, New York, USA
2023 A League of Nations, Art Students League of New York Gallery, New York, USA
2023 Against Apartheid, Karst Gallery, Plymouth, United Kingdom
2023 Common, A4, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 Shifting Dialogues: Photography from the Walther Collection K20 Dusseldorf, Germany
2022 Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! A4, Cape Town, South Africa
2022 Breaking Down the Walls: 150 Years of Art Collecting at Iziko, Iziko SANG Cape Town, South Africa
2021 Circle: AVA 50 Collectors, Association of Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2021 Lasting Influences, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2021 Fathom, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2020-3 The Sum of All Parts, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2020-1 Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection Espacio 23, Miami, USA
2020-2 Time for Change: Art and Social Unrest in the Jorge M. Perez Collection, Perez Art Museum, Miami
2020 Global (e) Resistance, Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
2020 Push the Limits, Fondazione Merz, Turin, Italy
2019 Still Here Tomorrow to High Five You Yesterday, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
2019 I've Grown Roses in This Garden Goodman Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2019 Mapping Worlds, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2019 I AM: Contemporary Women Artists of Africa, NMAFA, Smithsonian Institute , Washington, DC, USA*
2019 Heroes: Principles of African Greatness NMAFA, Smithsonian Institute , Washington, DC, USA
2019 Incarnations: African Art as Philosophy Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium*
2019 United by AIDS :an exhibition about Loss, Remembrance, Activism and Art in response to AIDS
Migros Museum, Zurich, Switzerland
2019 The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, Canada
2019 101 Collecting Conversations: Signature Works of the Century, Javett Art Centre, Pretoria, SA
2018 The Main Complaint, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa

2018 Kochi Muziris Biennale: Possibilities for a non-Alienated Life, Aspinwall House, Kochi

2018 Resist: the 1960s Protests, Photography and Visual Legacy, Summer of Photography 2018 Exhibition,

         BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium

2018 Road to Justice, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome, Italy

2018 Great Movements of Feeling, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, Australia

2018 Women House, National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington DC, USA

2017 Lucy’s Iris: Contemporary African Artists, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran    

        Canaria, Spain

2017 Women House, La Monnaie de Paris, Paris, France

2017 Truth or some other abstraction, featured exhibition at the Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South      

         Africa

2017 Art Basel Unlimited, Basel, Switzerland

2017 Being There: South Africa, a Contemporary Scene, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France

2017 Tous des sang-mêlés, MAC VAL, Paris, France

2017 A short history of South African photography, Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Italy

2017 Third Space /shifting conversations about contemporary art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA

2016 New Revolutions: Goodman Gallery at 50 , Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016 Lucy’s Iris: Contemporary African Women Artists, MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de  

         Castilla  León, Spain

2016 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York, USA

2016 Senses of Time: Video and Film-based Works of Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art,

         Washington DC, USA

2015 Questao de Familia (Family Matters), Centro de Arte Helio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2014 Contemporary Art / South Africa, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

2014 Artevida (politica), Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2014 Striking Resemblance: The Changing Art of Portraiture, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New

        Jersey, USA

2014 Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, Museum Africa,

        Johannesburg, South Africa

2013 – 2015 Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive Walther Collection, Ulm, Germany

2013 Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, Museum Africa,

        Johannesburg, South Africa

2013 Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive , 55th Venice Biennale, Italy

2013 My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France

2013 My Joburg, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany

2013 The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, Haus der Kunst, Munich,

         Germany

2012 The Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, International Center of

         Photography, New York, USA

2011 12th Istanbul Biennial, Turkey

2011 Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

2011 Artefacts, The Project Space, Ann Arbor, USA

2010 Darkroom, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Virginia, USA

2010 Ampersand, Daimler Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2010 Pierneef to Gugulective – 1910-2010, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, Newark Museum, N.J., USA

2009 Nation State, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

2008 Africa: Personal Poetics, Guangzhou Triennale, Guangdong Museum of Art, China

2008 The Poetics of Cloth, Grey Art Gallery, New York University , USA

2008 Signs of Change: Social Movement Cultures 1960s to Now, Exit Gallery, New York, USA

2007 Lift Off!, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

2007 Inscribing Meaning, National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C., Fowler Museum, Los Angeles USA

2007 The Loaded Lens, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

2007 The Sneeze 80×80, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2007 Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Center for Contemporary Culture, Barcelona, Spain

2007 Sasol Wax Awards Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg and Iziko South African National Gallery,

         Cape Town, South Africa

2007 Spier Contemporary Art Awards Spier Wine Estate, Cape Town and Johannesburg Art Gallery,

         Johannesburg, South Africa

2007 Tapping Currents: Contemporary African Art and the Diaspora, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas

         City, Missouri, USA

2007 Désiréalités, Espace 1789, Paris, France

2006 Body of Evidence, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA

2006 Trienal de Luanda, Angola

2006 9th Bienal de Havana, Cuba

2006 Off the Record, Shiibuya Station, Tokyo, Japan

2005 Imagining the Book II, Library of Alkexandria, Egypt

2004 A Decade of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Insights, National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. USA

2004 Democracy X, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Visions of Paradise, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 The Performative in African Photography, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004 Dak’Art, Biennale de Dakar, Senegal

2004 The Sneeze 80×80, Gallery Gazon Rouge, Athens, Greece

2004 New Identities: Contemporary South African Art, Museum Bochum, Germany

2004 Boustashy 01, El Max, Alexandria, Egypt

2004 _Brett Kebble Art Awards, International Convention Centre, Cape Town , South Africa

2004 AIDS in the Age of Globalization, The National Museum of World Cultures, Gothenburg, Sweden

2003 Transferts, Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium

2003 Co-existence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa, Rose Museum, Brandeis University,

         Boston, USA

2003 Sexuality and Death: Aids in Contemporary African Art, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne, Germany

2002-4 History/Now, Liljevachs Konsthalll, Stockholm, Sweden

2002-4 History/Now, Museum of Work, Norrköping, Sweden

2002-4 History/Now, Linköpings Art Centre, Sweden

2002-4 History/Now, Dunkers Culture Centre, Helsingborg, Sweden

2002-4 History/Now, Sörlandets Art Museum, Kristiansand, Norway

2002-4 History/Now, Midlanda Art Centre, Timrå/Sundsval, Sweden

2002-4 History/Now, Ronneby Art Centre, Sweden

2002 Africa Apart, New Society for the Visual Arts, Berlin, Germany

2002 Rencontres Video Arts Plastiques, Herouville Saint Clair, Normandy, France

2002 International Media Art Festival, Mexico City, Mexico

2002 Head North: Work from the permanent collection of the South African National Gallery, Bildmuseet, Umea,

         Sweden

2001-2 The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1954-1994, Villa Stuck Museum,

            Munich, Germany

2001-2 The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1954-1994, House of World

            Cultures, Berlin, Germany

2001-2 The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1954-1994, Museum of

            Contemporary Art of Chicago, USA

2001-2 The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1954-1994_, P.S.1 Contemporary Art

            Centre, New York, USA

2001-3_Dis/locations, Circulo de Bella Artes, PhotoEspana, Madrid, Spain, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain and Forum

            de Maia, O’Porto, Portugal

2001 World Wide Video Festival, Baby Lounge, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2000 Mostra Africana de Arte Contemporaneo; Videobrasil Electronic Art International Festival, SESC, Sao Paolo,

         Brazil

2000 Archive 09.06_02.07, Quartair,The Hague, Netherlands

2000 Johannesburg ,Johannesburg, Openspace, Milan, Italy

2000 Emotional Geographies: re-imaging the past in post-apartheid narrative, Las Palmas Building, Rhine

        Harbour, Foto Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands

2000 The New Republics, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Australia

2000 Secure the Future, Exhibition Centre, Durban South Africa and Harvard University, Boston, USA

1999 Artery – Goodman Gallery artists at Joao Ferreira Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

1999 <>Fast Forward.za, Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands

1999 Fotofest Five South African Artists, Houston, USA

1999-2002 Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museum for African Art, New York, USA

1999-2002 Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museum of Art, Austin, Texas, USA

1999-2002 Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Stanford University, California, USA

1999-2002 Liberated Voices: Contemporary Art from South Africa, University of Arizona, USA

1998 Les Arts de la Resistance: Exposition de Plasticiens d’Afrique du Sud, Galerie Michael Luneau, Nantes,

         France

1998-9 Drome och Mollnar, Kulturhuset, Stockholm and Museum of Fine Art, Goteborg, Sweden

1997 Thirty Minutes, the Robben Island Visitors Block, Cape Town,

1997 The District Six Outdoor Sculpture Project, Cape Town

1997 Alternating Currents, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale Electric Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa

1996 Colours, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany

1996 Simunye, Adelson Gallery, New York, USA

1996 Insight: Four Artists from South Africa, Wright Gallery, New York. USA

1996 Panoramas of Passage, Meridien International Centre, Washington DC

1995 Ku(n)stlijn, Hoorn, Netherlands

1995 Objects of Defiance, Spaces of Contemplation, 1st Johannesburg Biennale, MuseumAfrica, Johannesburg,

         South Africa

1995 Kunst Heimat Kunst, Kunstlerhaus, Steirischer Herbst Festival of Contemporary Art, Graz, Austria

1994 Vita Art Now Awards, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1994 Trackings, Art First, London, UK

1993 Incroci del Sud, Fondazione Levi, Venice, XLV Venice Biennale, and Sala Uno, Rome, Italy 1993 Incroci del

         Sud, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1993 The Art of Protest, Benton Gallery, Southampton, N.Y., USA

1992 9th Biennale of Sydney, Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

1992 4th Havana Biennale, National Museum of Art, Havana, Cuba

1992 Africa en America, Bayona Vigo and Santiago de Compostela, Spain

1991 Art and the Media, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa

1990 South African Mail: Messages from Inside, Soho Gallery, New York, USA

1989 Art/Images in Southern Africa, Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden

1988 Detention without trial: 100 artists protest, Market Theatre Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1986 Commitment to Vision, Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Oregon, USA

1986 About Time: Images of South Africa Ping Pong Palace, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South

         Africa

1985 Tributaries, MuseumAfrica, Johannesburg, South Africa, and German tour

1982 Art Towards Social Development, Culture and Resistance Festival, National Museum and Art Gallery,

         Gaborone, Botswana

 

Teaching, Lectureships and Workshop

 

2022

2009 Text in Landscape Workshop, National Gallery of Art, Harare, Zimbabwe

2003-5 Crossroads Street Signs, a Public Eye Project, Crossroads, Cape Town, South Africa

1986 Papermaking and linocutting Workshop, Khorixas Community Centre, Namibia

         Professional Appointments and Consultation

2013 Guest curator Sommerakademie Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern

2008 Consulting curator, ZA Young Art From South Africa, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena

1999 Founder member of arts organisation, Public Eye, Cape Town, South Africa

1997 Founding editor www.artthrob.co.za

1991-1992 Chairperson of the Visual Arts Group, Cultural Workers Congress, Cape Town, South Africa

Conference and Workshop Participation

2017 Art as Visual Conscience of Society, with Homi K. Bhabha and Tamar Garb, Stellenbosch University

Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2014 On Time: African Art and the Question of Temporality, The Clark Institute, Williamstown, Mass.

2011 Conversation amongst Friends, Museum of Modern Art, New York

2008 The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End, Panelist, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New

York USA

2007 Inscribing Meaning, Panelist, Fowler Museum, Los Angeles, USA

2005 Young Artists’ Project Seminar Panelist, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa

2005 Imagining the Book Biennale, Panelist, Library of Alexandria, Egypt

2002 Who defines the Contemporary Biennials and the Global Art World?,

Panelist. Sackler Museum, Smithsonian International Art Museums, Washington D.C. USA

2002 Beyond the Gallery: Art in Public Spaces, Conference director, Cape Technikon, Cape Town, South Africa

2002 Workshop on Cultural Management for Artists, Guest speaker, Hotel Paz, Lujan, Argentina

2001 Fact and Fiction in Post Authoritarian Societies, Guest speaker, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA

2001 Places and Spaces of Art in Gender Perspective, Panelist, University of Bielefeld, Germany

2001 The Short Century: Artists Talks Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA

2000 State of the Visual Arts in Africa and the African Diaspora: An Agenda for the 21st Century, Panelist, Ecole

de Beaux Arts, Paris, France

1991 Arts Weekend: Nadine Gordimer, Wally Serote, Sue Williamson and Malangatana, Waterford Kamhlaba

School, Swaziland

1986 Women’s Caucus for Art Annual Conference: Liberty and the Pursuit of Liberty, Panelist, NYU, New York,

USA.

1986 Apartheid South Africa: the Role of Art in the Struggle, Guest speaker, Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico,

USA

 

Awards and Merits

 

2023 Yale University Artist in Residence Fellowship

2019 Appointed to the Living Legends Fraternity Trust by the South African Department of Culture for ‘having contributed immensely to the country and the world through her art.’

2018 Received an Ellen Kuzwayo award from the University of Johannesburg ‘for her formidable talent and

contribution to South African arts and culture.’

2011 Bellagio Creative Arta Fellowship, Italy, Rockefeller Foundation

2007 Visual Artist Research Award Fellowship, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., USA

2007 Goodman Gallery Award, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005 Lucas Artists Residency Fellowship. Montalvo Art Center, California

2005 Brett Kebble Art Awards, major award, Cape Town, South Africa

1994 Vita Art Now Award, Overall winner, Johannesburg Art Gallery

 

Academic Record and Residencies

 

Residencies:

2009 10th Havana Biennial, Cojimar, Cuba

2007 National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. USA

2007 Cooper Hewitt Museum of Design, New York, USA

2005 Montalvo Art Center, Saratoga, California,USA

2003 Boustashy 01, Urban Scenographies, Alexandria, Egypt

1999 International Center for Printmaking, Rutgers University, N.J., USA

1995 Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands

1990 Editha Morris Foundation, Paris, France

h2. Postgraduate:

1984 Advanced diploma (fine art) Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa

Undergraduate:

1967-9 Art Students League of New York, New York, USA

 

Collections

 

Public Collections

International

 

The Tate Modern, London

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Jochen Zeitz Collection, Germany

Daimler Collection, Berlin

Walther Collection, Ulm

Museum of Modern Art, New York

Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego

National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.

The Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, Virginia..

The Museum of the 21st Century, Louisville, Kentucky

Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco

Newark Museum, New Jersey

Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama,

Sir Elton John Photography Collection, Atlanta,

North Dakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks,

Wellesley College, Massachusetts

Wheaton College, Norton, MA

PAMM, Pérez Art Museum, Miami

Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Miami

Wifredo Lam Centre, Havana,

Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art, Luanda, Angola

 

South Africa:

 

Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town

Houses of Parliament, Cape Town

Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg

Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg

Brenthurst Library, Johannesburg

Cape Provincial Library, Cape Town

Durban Art Gallery, Durban

South African Broadcasting Corporation, Johannesburg

United States Embassy, Cape Town

United States Embassy, Johannesburg

Gauteng Legislature, Johannesburg

King George VI Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth

MTN Art Institute, Johannesburg

Standard Bank, Johannesburg

Museum of Art, Pretoria,

MuseuMAfricA, Johannesburg

University of Cape Town, Cape Town

University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch

University of the Western Cape, Cape Town

University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa

Natal Technicon, Durban

Sasol, Johannesburg

ETV, Johannesburg

Spier Wine Estate, Cape Town

Tatham Gallery, Pietermaritzburg

District Six Museum, Cape Town

Art Trust Fund, Cape Town

Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town