Curriculum Vitae
Solo Exhibitions
* indicates catalogue/publication
2026 After De Jongh, WAM Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg
After De Jongh, KKNK Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudthoorn
2025 After De Jongh, Woordfees arts festival, GUS Gallery University Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch
2023 Shooting Selves II, Nel Art, Cape Town
2020 Shooting Selves, Nel Art, Cape Town
2014 selfshots, Speke Photographic at CIRCA gallery, Johannesburg
2013 selfshots, AVA, Cape Town
2009 figuring II: Heiseb, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town
2008 figuring, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
2005 Tim van Laere Gallery, Antwerp
2004 Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne
2003 Tim Van Laere Gallery, Antwerp
Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne
Still Life, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
Bijlmer Groups, Artoteek Zuidoost, Amsterdam
2000 Trappings, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
1997 Africus Institute of Contemporary Art, Johannesburg*
National Art Gallery of Namibia, Windhoek
Group Exhibitions
* indicates catalogue/publication
2023 Trace - Formations of LikenessPhotography and Video from The Walther Collection. Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany. April 14 – July 23, 2023*
2019 Between biography and abstraction - an exhibition of experimental photographs and mixed media works on paper, together with Susan Greenspan,
The Toffee Gallery, Darling, South Africa
2015 Think of Number 6, curated by John Peffer, GUS gallery, Stellenbosch and Point of Order, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Battleground, curated by Michael Godby, National Arts Festival, Standard Bank Gallery, Grahamstown, South Africa*
2014 Group show of photography as part of Cape Town Month of Photography MOP6, Youngblood gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 Weather Report, curated by Luan Nel, Aardklop Arts Festival, Potchefstroom, South Africa
Camouflage, curated by Francki Burger, Speke Photographic at Circa Gallery, Johannebsurg, South Africa
Animals in Art, curated by Julia Charlton, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
Steek, curated by Vuli Nyoni and Ernst van der Wal, Sasol Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2011 Interpretations of Africa – Football, Art and Design, curated by Mark Coetzee in collaboration with Puma, Design Museum, London, South Africa
Lens, Sasol Art Museum, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Horse, curated by Ricky Burnett, Circa/Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa*
2010 The Lie of the Land - Representations of the South African Landscape, curated by Michael Godby,
Iziko Museums, The Old Town House, Cape Town, South Africa*
The Walter Collection, curated by Okwui Enwezor, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen, Germany*
Winter Show, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Menippean Uprising, curated by the artist together with Pierre Fouché, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2009 Capital: How Heads Talk, Wits Art Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dada South?, Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Registration, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Nation State, Curated by Liza Essers and Storm Janse van Rensburg, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
In Black and White, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Sasol Wax Art Award 2008 Exhibition, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Warren Editions, Curious, Whetstone & Frankley, Cape Town, South Africa
Black, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
Panoply, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Artthrob Editions, The SA Print Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Heimat Hotel’, Breda Photo 2008, Breda, The Netherlands*
Sasol Wax Art Award exhibition, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa *
Print ’08, Memory and the Archive, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Warren Editions: Tom Cullberg & Hentie van der Merwe, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2007 ‘Isilwane: Pets and Presences’ curated by David Bunn, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Is there Still-Life curated by Michael Godby, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Spier Contemporary Exhibition, Africa Centre, Cape and Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa *
2006 Figuring Faith: Images of Belief in Africa, curated by Fiona Rankin-Smith, Standard Bank Art Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa*
Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, curated by Okwui Enwezor, International Center of Photography, New York, USA*
Erase me from who I am, curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria*
Psycho. Zeitgenössische Positionen zwischen Seelenheil und Apokalypse, curated by Ulrike Jagla-Blankenburg, Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, Germany*
Mädels, curated by Gabriele Rivet, Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne, Germany
2005 My Private Heroes, curated by Jan Hoet, MARTa Herford, Germany*
Art at Work, Klein Karoo Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
Imprints, Axis Gallery, New York, USA
Terror, online project curated by Sixten, www.wooloo.org/Terror
10 years 100 artists, Bell-Roberst Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa *
2004 New Talents, Galerie Gabriele Rivet at Art Cologne, Germany
SABC Art Collection, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Untitled exhibition, curated by Kendell Geers, Vooruit Art Center, Gent, Belgium
Is One Thing Better Than Another?, Galerie Aurel Scheibler, Cologne, Germany
10 Years/10 Voices, curated by Kathy Grundling, Sala Una, Rome, Italy
Black & White, Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne, Germany
2003 Sexuality and Death: Aids in contemporary African Art, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne, Germany*
Male Order, UCT Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
Noah’s Ark, Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne, Germany
Body and the Archive, curated by Lauri Firstenberg, Artists Space, New York, USA
Don’t think twice, it’s all right, Tim van Laere Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
Hisk Laureates - Out2002, curated by Theo Tegelaers, Elzenveld, Antwerp, Belgium
2002 Dialogica, with Wim Wauman, IN/OUT (Higher Institute for Fine Arts), Antwerp, Belgium
BIG TORINO 2002, 2nd International Biennial of Young Art, Artistic Director: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Torino, Italy*
Forms of Violence, Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne, Germany
2001 Dis/location – images and identity South Africa, curated by Daniela Tilkin for Fotoespaña 2001, International Photography Festival, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao* \
One To Seven, curated by Jårg Geismar, Galerie Gabriele Rivet, Cologne, Germany
Rencontres de la photographie africaine, 4th Biennial of African Photography, Bamako, Mali*
2000 FNB Vita Art Prize Exhibition, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa*
Urban Futures, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
Secure The Future, 13th International AIDS Conference, Durban, South Africa
Translation/Seduction/Displacement, curated by Lauri Firstenberg and John Peffer, White Box Gallery, New York, USA
Emotions and Relations, curated by the artist, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg and Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa
After New York, Group exhibition of work by past recipients of the Ampersand Foundation Fellowship, Johannesburg Civic Gallery, South Africa
The Body, curated by Leanne Engelberg, UNISA (University of South Africa) Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
1999 X-scape - Photography in a New South Africa, a photographic project of shuttle ’99, NSA Galley, Durban and Bensusan Museum of Photography, Johannesburg, South Africa
Lines of Sight, Contemporary South African Photography, curated by Zwelethu Mthethwa, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Emergence, curated by Julia Charlton and Fiona Rankin-Smith, Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Albany Museum – Grahamstown,
King George VI Art Gallery – Port Elizabeth, Durban Art Gallery, Standard Bank Gallery – Johannesburg, South Africa
Exchange: Recent works by the staff and tutors of the Wits Fine Arts Department, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1998 Dreams and Clouds, curated by Ingemar Arnesson and Wessel van Huyssteen, Kulturhuset: Stockholm, Sweden*
Alborough, Alexander, Nel, Lipson, Van Der Merwe, Wilson, curated by Julia Charlton and Natasha Fuller, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of The Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Unplugged, Rembrandt Van Rijn Art Gallery, Newtown, Johannesburg
Aids Worlds: Between Resignation and Hope, curated by Frank Wagner (Berlin), 12th International Aids/HIV Conference, Centre d’Art Contemporain and Dialogai, Geneva*
1997 Lifetimes: An Exhibition of Southern African Art, curated by Ruth Sack and Nina Jacobson, Munich, Germany
Collecting Ourselves, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1996 Four Young Artists, with Brendhan Dickerson, James Reed and Alex Trapani, Newtown Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Unplugged, Rembrandt Van Rijn Art Gallery, Newtown, Johannesburg , South Africa
1995 Springtime in Chile, curated by Wayne Barker and Ernesto Munoz, Santiago, Chile
Taking Liberties: The Body Politic, curated by Colin Richards and Ptika Ntuli, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Africus1995, Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg, South Africa*
Exhibitions Curated
* indicates catalogue/ publication
2015 EMERGING PAINTERS, Turbine Art Fair 2015, Johannesburg*
SLOW VIOLENCE, GUS gallery, Stellenbosch, as part of a 3-day interdisciplinary workshop “Disturbing the ‘normalized quiet of unseen power’: Alternative ways of representing violence” , 30 March to 1 April 2015 -
hosted by the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty, Stellenbosch University.
2014 SITE: photography and national trauma in South Africa, GUS gallery, Stellenbosch, as part of the Cape Town Month of Photography 2014 programme*
2010 The Menippean Uprising, curated together with Pierre Fouché, Blank Projects, Cape Town
1999 Emotions and Relations, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg
Professional Appointments and Consultation
2008-2018 Senior Lecturer in Photography and Fine Arts coordinator, Visual Arts Department, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch
2006-2008 Part-time lecturer in Fine Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Conference and Workshop Participation
2015 Curating Slow Violence the exhibition, 3-day interdisciplinary workshop “Disturbing the ‘normalized quiet of unseen power’: Alternative ways of representing violence” - 30 March to 1 April 2015 - hosted by the
Arts and Social Sciences Faculty, Stellenbosch University.
2009 My Work in Relation to ‘The Archive’: a Practice of Critical Reciprocity, On Making: Integrating Approaches to Practice-Led Research in Art and Design, 15-16 October 2009, University of Johannesburg.
2006 Reconstructing documentary: subaltern subjectivity and experience in Kutlug Ataman’s ‘Never my Soul!’, Paper presented at the lecture series to accompany the exhibition Erase Me from Who I Am curated by
Elvira Dyangani Ose at the Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno CAAM in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 20-21 April
1999 Picturing Health - The Photographed Male Body in the Archives of Hugh MacFarlane, Encounters With Photography, Photographing People in Southern Africa, 1860 to 1999, Cape Town, 14 to 17 July
1998 The Representation of AIDS and Gay Identity in the work of Robert Gober and my own, 14th Annual South African Art Historians Conference entitled “Negotiating Identities”, July 1998, University of South Africa,
Pretoria
1996 New Strategies: The Re-presentation of Gay Identity and AIDS in the work of Felix Gonzales-Torres, Second Annual South African Qualitative Conference “The Body Politic” held at the National Centre For
Occupational Health, Johannesburg, 3-4 September
Awards and Merits
2008 Winner of the Sasol Wax Art Award 2008, Johannesburg
2002 Artissima /BIG Torino 2002 Prize for best visual artist, BIG TORINO 2002, 2nd International Biennial of Young Art, curated by Michelangelo Pisoletto
2001 National Arts Council Bursary for International Study.
Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Grant for Overseas Study.
Skowhegan Fellowship to attend the 2001 Skowhegan Summer workshop.
2000 FNB Vita Art Prize nominee
Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust Grant for Overseas Study
Montagu White Bursary for Overseas Study
1999 Ampersand Foundation Fellowship - residency in New York for the period of Jan/Feb 1999 to do research for MA Fine Arts degree
National Arts Council Bursary for Overseas Study, for purposes of research on artist Robert Gober in New York, US towards completing MA degree in Fine Arts
1994 Anya Mellman Scholarship for Overseas Travel, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Academic Record and Residencies
Residencies
2003 Artist in Residence as part of the BijlmAIR program. A joint project between Artotheek Zuidoost / Het Nieuwe Podium (AZO/HNP) and Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam. February – July 2003
Postgraduate
2002 Laureateship, Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK), Antwerp, Belgium
2001 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine, USA
2000 MA Fine Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Undergraduate
1994 BA Fine Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
Public Collections
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
Gemeentearchief Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
Durban Art Gallery, Durban
Gauteng Legislature, Johannesburg
Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
SABC Collection, Johannesburg
Sasol Art Collection, Johannesburg
BHP Billiton Art Collection, Johannesburg
Rand Merchant Bank Collection, London
Sanlam Collection, Cape Town
Selected Bibliography
2013 Revealing Whiteness/Displaying Violence: South African Photography by David Goldblatt and Hentie van der Merwe, Kevin Mulhearn, available online from
www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/mulhearnwhitepaper.pdf
2012 Screw the Nation! Queer Nationalism and Representations of Power in Contemporary South African Art, Alvaro Luis Lima, African Arts Winter 2012 Vol 45 Number 4 pp. 46-57.
2008 ‘Wenner se werk al meer teatraal’, Johan Myburgh Beeld, 20 Oktober, bl. 12.
‘Hentie van der Merwe – figuring’, CLASSICFEEL, July 2008, Johannesburg, pp. 74-75.
‘Sasol Wax wat was’, Johan Myburgh vir Beeld, 20 Oktober 2008, bl. 12.
‘Found in Translation’, Tim Trengove-Jones for The Weekender, 25-26 October 2008, pp. 7 (Weekend Review).
‘Begoëlend, maar eweneens onthutsend’, Johan Muyburg vir Beeld, 6 Augustus 2008, pp. 4(Plus).
‘Peering through that which hides’, Timothy Trengove-Jones for The Weekender, 9-10 August 2008, pp. 5(Arts).
‘‘Benign’ relationship melts under the spotlight’, Mary Corrigall for Sunday Independent, 19 October 2008.
2006 ‘Hentie van der Merwe’, Portfolio, Portfolio Photography Workshop Limited, Edinburgh, UK, pp. 20-25.
‘Hentie van der Merwe’, Uta Reindl, catalogue text, Psycho Zeitgenössische Positionen zwischen Seelenheil und Apokalypse, curated by Ulrike Jagla-Blankenburg, Kunstverein Mönchengladbach.
2005 ‘Hentie van der Merwe at Gabriele Rivet’, Art on Paper, New York, US,Jan/Feb 2005
2003 ‘Bijlmer mix’, Volkskrant Magazine, 6 Sept 2003, Amsterdam, Netherlands, pp. 34-39.
‘The New Dutch Group Portrait’, Jan van Adrichem, Stedelijk Bulletin, no 4,Sept 2003, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, pp18-21.
‘Groepsgewijs’, Pauline Burmann, Zuidelijk Afrika, nummer 3, 2003, Holland, blz. 44-45.
‘United Confusions of Representation’, Corinne Diserens, Hisk Laureates catalogue, Higher Institute for Fine Arts, Antwerpen, pp 136-139
‘Smeltkroes op papier’, Alberta Opoku, Contrast, nummer. 26, 11 September 2003, Holland, blz. 26-27
‘Van Van der Merwe and Nel at the Goodman Gallery’, Brenton Maart for Artthrob, September 2000 (www.artthrob.co.za)
‘Van der Merwe and Nel at the Goodman Gallery’, Yvette Greslé, Art South Africa
‘Fragen nach dem Wesentlichen’, Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger – Nr.131 – Samstag/Sonntag 7/8 Juni 2003, pp27
‘Body and the Archive’, Emily Speers Mears, Art South Africa, Vol 01 Issue 03, Autumn 2003, pp 64
2002 ‘Representing the Body Archivally in South African Photography’, Lauri Firstenberg, Art Journal Vol. 61, no. 1 Spring 2002 NY, USA, pp 58-67
2001 One to Seven’, Uta M. Reindl, Kunstforum Nov/Dec 2001, Germany, pp157
2000 ‘Blurred Focus’, Bettie Coetzee, Garden and Home, July 2000, Johannesburg.
‘Art Out of War’, Shaaun de Waal, Weekly Mail & Guardian, March 20.
‘Translation/Seduction/Displacement’, Holland Cotter, New York Times, March 24.
1996 ‘Raiding the Archive’, Rory Bester, NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art, Summer/Fall, New York, USA, pp. 64.
‘The Illicit Desires of Discipline’, Brenda Atkinson, Mail & Guardian, June 13.
‘Love, Friendship, Sex’, Revue Noire, Paris, Dec 1995-Jan 1996, pp. 14-15.
Books
2025 Hentie van der Merwe, Stains of the landscape, Artsin Square, www.artsinsquare.com
2004 ‘Hentie van der Merwe’, 10 Years 100 Artists, Bell-Roberts Publishing/Struik Publishers, Cape Town, pp. 386-389.
1996 ‘Murderous Times’, Art in South Africa: The Future Present, Williamson, S and Jamal, A (1996) David Philip Publishers, Cape Town, pp. 113-114.
Catalogues
2025 Re/Trace—Formations of Likeness, The Walther Collection / Steidl Verlag, ISBN-10: 3969994292, ISBN-13: 978-3969994290.
2000 ‘Hentie van der Merwe’, by Rory Bester in FNB Vita Art Prize Catalogue, Johannesburg.
1997 ‘Hentie van der Merwe’, Catalogue published by the French Institute of South Africa for solo exhibition at Generator Art Space, Johannesburg, 1997.
2015 Battleground, Michael Godby, ISBN: 978-0-620-66482-0
2015 The Institute, Tom de Mette, ISBN: 9789401423991
2010 Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection, Events of the self, Portraiture and social identity, Okwui Enwezor, ISBN: 978-3-86930-157-0
2008 Heimat Hotel, Breda Photo 2008, Rob de Brouwer, ISBN: 978-90-809776-4-8
2006 Snap Judgements, New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, Okwui Enwezor, ISBN: 3-86521-224-7
2005 (my private) Heroes, Jan Hoet, ISBN: 3-938025-12-3
2002 Dislocation: Images & Identity. South Africa, Daniela Tilkin, ISBN: 84-95471-44-2
1999 AIDS Worlds: Between resignation and hope, Frank Wagner, ISBN: 3-9520076-4-1
1996 Art in South Africa: The Future Present, Sue Williamson, Ashraf Jamal, ISBN: 0864863217, 9780864863218
1995 Africus Johannesburg Biennale Catalogue, Christopher Till, ISBN: 0-86998-1714