STUDIO WORK
Pierre Fouché (b. 1977, Pretoria) introduces himself as a lacemaker. This designation highlights his interest in the techniques, materials, histories, and social relevance of textiles. His respect for technique, tradition, and innovation has earned Fouché his place within the craft establishment as an internationally respected practitioner and teacher of contemporary bobbin lace. His penchant for arcane media and aesthetics has led his practice to include macramé, drawn thread embroidery, encaustic painting, and pinhole photography, as well as traditional painting, drawing, and printmaking.
Thematically, his work focuses on portraiture and the gaze, photography and representation, appropriation, and web-media cultures, as well as some forays into overt queer politics. Often informed by world art history, his desire to understand the machinery of contemporary visual cultures tends toward the Romantic. His consistent marriage of iconography with craftsmanship also contributes to this reading.
BIOGRAPHY
Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. Since then he has had 10 solo exhibitions. In 2021 he represented South Africa at the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial in Perth. In 2018 he was the featured artist of the Andorran city of Escaldes- Engordany’s 12th Textile and Glass Symposium. Notable group exhibitions include Lace/not lace at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey; Crafted: Objects in flux at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2018), Women’s work at the Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), as well as the touring exhibition, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, first exhibited at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York (2015). His work is represented in the public collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, The Norval Foundation, the A4 Art Foundation and the Artphilein Foundation, Switzerland.
EDUCATION
2006 University of Stellenbosch: MA in Fine Art.
1999 University of Stellenbosch: BA in Fine Art.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 The Burden of Excess: Whatiftheworld Gallery: Cape Town.
2019 The Little Binche Peacock and Other Utopian Dreams: Whatiftheworld Gallery: Cape Town.
2017 Vreesaanjaende Verligting, Whatiftheworld Gallery: Cape Town.
2015 The Fallen and the Drowned, Whatiftheworld Gallery: Cape Town.
2014 The lacemaker's studio, DOCK: Basel.
2012 These waves, Whatiftheworld Gallery: Cape Town.
2011 Fred, Denis & other Portraits, VOLTA7, Basel, Switzerland (Whatiftheworld).
2008 Convoluted involvement, Bell-Roberts: Cape Town, Absa Gallery: Johannesburg.
2006 The distance between us, Bell-Roberts: Cape Town.
2005 Excluded & Unsaid, Blank: Cape Town.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS / PROJECTS
2023
INTERLACED, THE FABRIC OF ART, Childs Gallery, Boston.
2022
FISKARS VILLAGE ART & DESIGN BIENNALE, Raasepori, Finland
INDECENT - A GROUP EXHIBITION OF LACE MINIATURES, Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town.
2021
INDIAN OCEAN CRAFT TRIENNIAL, John Curtin Gallery, Perth.
A LINE BEYOND, curated by Olga Speakes, AVA Gallery, Cape Town.
BETWEEN STRANGERS, Nuweland, Oosterzee-Buren, The Netherlands
2020
MATERIALITY, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
2019
FESTIVAL OF LIGHT - Spier Estate, Stellenbosch.
BOBBIN LACE DESIGN & BINCHE CLOTH STITCH MANIPULATION - Facilitator of a two-day workshop at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, USA.
2018
EBB 'N' FLOW-LACE, PLACE AND CLIMATE by Jane Atkinson, with showcases by International Lacemakers. Walford Mill Museum, Wimborne, UK.
LACE, NOT-LACE (Curated by Devon Thein), Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, USA.
THE 12TH TEXTILE AND LACE SYMPOSIUM, CAEE (Escaldes-Engordany Art Gallery), Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra.
SUNDAY SERVICE - A queer art exhibition curated by Brett Charles Seiler and Heinrich Groenewald. GUS, Stellenbosch. SA.
2017
YOU AND I (curated by Ziphozenkosi Dayile and Kemang Wa Lehulere), A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, SA.
2016
AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE - Fashion Politics and culture in Contemporary South African Art (Curated by Andrew Heinlich), Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Kalamazoo, USA.
DEAR EUROPA - Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
WOMEN’S WORK - Crafting stories, subverting narratives (curated by Ernestine White & Olga Speakes), Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
2015
FOREIGN BODIES. Whatiftheworld, Cape Town, SA.
QUEER THREADS - Crafting Identity and Community (Curated by John Chaich). Decker Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, USA.
CRAFTED: OBJECTS IN FLUX (curated by Emily Zilber), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA.
30 years of the ABSA Atelier, KKNK Oudtshoorn / Absa Gallery, Johannesburg, SA.
’n KOERANT GEBORE UIT HOOP EN SMART (curated by Sandra Hanekom), Die Burger Suidoosterfees, Artscape, Cape Town, SA.
Monologues (curated by Meredith Randall), Aardklop, Potchefstroom, SA.
2014
Queer Threads (curated by John Chaich), Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York, USA.
Brave New World (curated by Andrea Lewis and Ernestine White) Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.
What lies beneath, Equus Gallery, Cavalli Estate, SA.
2013
Suspicious Minds - Artist's exploration of mind and matter, Michaelis Gallery: Cape Town
2011
'Trading Freedoms' (part of the conference Love, Sex, Desire & the (Post)Colonial) curated by Bettina Malcomess, University of London
Ingrid Jonker: Rust & Vrede: Durbanville
2010
Manet's too tight to mention: What if the World: Cape Town
The Menippean Uprising, blank projects: Cape Town
Ways of seeing, Ore gallery: Cape Town.
Inverting the Pyramid, blank projects: Cape Town
1910-2010: From Pierneef to Gugulective, Iziko South African National Gallery: Cape Town
Swallow My Pride, blank projects: Cape Town
2009
The gift (collaboration with Liza Grobler), Irma Stern Museum: Cape Town.
Studio visit, AVA: Cape Town
Signs/Representation, 14-1 Gallerie: Stuttgart
Obsessie, KKNK- Oudshoorn
2008
The bijou burns again, UCA: Cape Town
2007
A Legacy of Men, Johannesburg Art Gallery: Johannesburg
Selected projects 2005-2007, blankprojects: Cape Town
Love & misery, BIJOU art studios: Cape Town (P)
Greenhouse, Bell-Roberts: Laurensford, Somerset West
Portrait/Landscape, Bell-Roberts: Laurensford, Somerset West
ABSA L’atelier regional finalists exhibitions, Art-B: Bellville & ABSA Gallery: Johannesburg
Fest, Rust & Vrede: Durbanville
2006
Take it like a man, blank projects: Cape Town
2005
Paper never lies, VEO: Cape Town
ABSA L’atelier regional finalists exhibitions, Art-B: Bellville & ABSA Gallery: Johannesburg
2004
Sex & Kultuur Queer Arts Festival, AMAC: Cape Town
LVJ+MJB XXX, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival: Oudtshoorn (as part of the D.I.E.N.S-collective) (P) ABSA L’atelier regional finalists exhibitions, Art-B: Bellville & ABSA Gallery: Johannesburg
2000
Softserve2: Art at play, National Gallery: Cape Town
1999
Softserve Multimedia art event, National Gallery: Cape Town
1997
District Six Public Sculpture Festival: Cape Town (as part of the Stellenbosch Paper Project)(P).
RESIDENCIES
2014 Atelier Mondial/Prohelvetia: Basel, Switzerland
2008 Cité Internationale des Arts: Paris, France
AWARDS
2007 Overall winner: ABSA L’Atelier
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Iziko South African National Gallery. Artphilein Foundation: Switzerland.
REPRESENTATION:
Whatiftheworld, South Africa. Nuweland, The Netherlands.