WILLEM BOSHOFF

EXHIBITIONS

​

1981 Guest artist, Johannesburg Art Gallery.

 

1982 Natalie Knight Gallery, Johannesburg, with Joe Tilson.

 

1984 South African Association of Arts, Pretoria, with Hans Potgieter.

 

1985 Work selected for Tributaries, an exhibition of South African art touring South Africa and West Germany, curated by Ricky Burnett.

 

1994 Selected for State of the Art, an exhibition curated by Trent Read for the Everard Read Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg.

 

1995 BLIND ALPHABET ABC shown at the Johannesburg Art Gallery as part of Outside Inside, an exhibition curated by Julia Charlton for the Africus Biennale 1995; also selected for the FNB VITA Art Now exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery; BOTTLED HOPE, selected for Right to Hope, an exhibition of international art touring various countries and commissioned by the United Nations; BLIND ALPHABET B: 90 sculptures exhibited at Siyawela, an exhibition of South African Art at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England.

 

1996 45 Sculptures from BLIND ALPHABET B shown at FNB Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery; BLIND ALPHABET C: 77 sculptures exhibited in Atlanta, USA as part of an exhibition of South African Art; BAD FAITH CHRONICLES, an assemblage of labeled dolls and Bibles on 11 panels, Mermaid Theatre Gallery, London; 45 sculptures of BLIND ALPHABET B shown at an exhibition of South African art entitled Don’t Mess with Mister In-between, held at Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal; BLIND ALPHABET C: 77 sculptures exhibited as the South African work at the 23rd International Biennale of Sao Paulo.

 

1997 SHREDDED EVIDENCE exhibited at the Unplugged show, Rembrandt Gallery, Johannesburg; a series of three works entitled TREE OF KNOWLEDGE exhibited at the Alliance Fran ç aise, Johannesburg; Johannesburg Biennale; THE WRITING THAT FELL OFF THE WALL, an installation shown at the Johannesburg Art Gallery as part of an exhibition of international artists named Important and Exportant, curated by Gerardo Mosquera; an installation, GARDEN OF WORDS, for the FNB Vita Award for Art at the Sandton Municipal Gallery; ABAMFUSA LAWULA, a work for the Purple and Green exhibition of international art at the Pretoria Art Museum.

 

1998 Sanlam Centre, Cape Town BLIND ALPHABET C: 20 sculptures with Worcester School for the Blind; pieces concerning historical language made between 1977–1981 as part of Dark Continent, showing the work of four artists and curated by Clive Kellner; BLIND ALPHABET C: 77 sculptures placed on permanent exhibition at the National Library for the Blind, Birmingham, England; BANGBOEK (1977-­1980) at an exhibition of South African/Angolan war memories organised by Intimas Memorias Marcas and shown at the Museu da Cidade, Pavilhao Branco, Lisbon, Portugal, and thereafter in Brussels, Belgium; Dreamsand Clouds, two works from the TREE OF KNOWLEDGE series shown at an exhibition of 14 South African artists at Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden, thereafter in G ö teborg, Sweden; BLIND ALPHABET D shown at Triennale der Kleinplastik, an exhibition of international artists in Stuttgart, Germany. This work was purchased for the collection of the Stadtischen Galerie G ö ppingen.

 

1999 Conceptual work shown on an exhibition entitled Conceptualist Art: Points of Origin 1950s-1980s, Queens Museum of Art, New York and in 2000 at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, which featured leading international artists in the conceptualist idiom and toured the United States; an installation, GARDEN OF WORDS II, shown at the 8th Floralies Internationales, Nantes, France; Group Exhibition; Johannesburg Art Foundation; Manuscript Exhibition, Carfax Gallery, Johannesburg; Emergence, an exhibition of South African Art, curated by the University of the Witwatersrand and touring the major centres in South Africa. 

 

2000 Large installation of BANGBOEK as part of an exhibition of war memories of African artists, held at MuKHA (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen) in Antwerp, Belgium; KYKAFRIKAANS at the White Box Gallery, Chelsea, New York, exhibited with the work of other South African artists Translation/Seduction/Displacement; the first granite pieces of an ongoing conceptual work entitled PANIFICE, shown as part of After New York, an exhibition by members of the Ampersand Foundation at the Johannesburg Civic Gallery; an outdoor installation entitled BREAD AND PEBBLES for the exhibition Mnemosyne curated by Leanne Engelberg at the University of the Witwatersrand; INDEX OF (B)REACHINGS, a large installation dealing with divination in Europe and Africa, shown as part of Urban Futures 2000 at MuseuMAfricA, Johannesburg; and also exhibited as the main artwork at Aardklop art festival, Potchefstroom; an installation, THE WRITING IN THE SAND, shown in Cuba at the Havana Biennale; BLIND ALPHABET C, shown in Umea, Northern Sweden; SHREDDED EVIDENCE and ABAMFUSA LAWULA exhibited in gallery Via Cesare Correnti, Milan, in an exhibition called Johannesburg, Johannesburg as part of the project mostra d’arte contemporanea atmosphere metropolitan; THE WRITING THAT FELL OFF THE WALL (1997) and GARDEN OF WORDS I (1997), exhibited at the Museo Nacional, Centro deArte, Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain as part of the exhibition Visiones del Sur: No es sólo lo que ves: pervirtiendo minimalismo, curated by Gerardo Mosquera.

 

2001 WRITING IN THE SAND, exhibited with works by the group Decembristerne by Den Frie Udstillings, Copenhagen, Denmark; selection of work exhibited on Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, Munich, Germany, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA; PANIFICE, an installation of granite breads on breadboards in 60 languages at the 49 thVenice Biennale as part of the exhibition Authentic/Ex-centric: Africa In and Out Africa curated by Olu Oguibe and Okwui Enwezor; Pretoria Art Museum the BLIND ALPHABET (B1-B40) was shown as part of an exhibition entitled Seeing Blind; Millennium II, Johannesburg: Cracked-up to be, joint exhibition with Andrew Munnik; Rand Afrikaans University, WRITING IN THE SAND, a solo exhibition with workshop on concrete poetry; PANIFICE, exhibited in Unpacking Europe at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

 

2002 GARDEN OF WORDS II, exhibited at Vandskel Kunstcentret, Silkeborg Bad, Denmark; MAZE, a 40m x 15m, walk-through installation of scrap materials for Mission Antarctica at the 2002 World Summit on sustainable development, Johannesburg; BLIND ALPHABET (C78-C154), IZIKO SA National Gallery, Cape Town.

 

2003 GARDEN OF WORDS II, shown at Camouflage, Observatorio, Brussels and in Switzerland; ABAMFUSA LAWULA on exhibition and the front cover of the accompanying catalogue of Co-existence: Contemporary Cultural Production in S.A. at Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Boston, and later at the IZIKO SA National Gallery, Cape Town; NEGOTIATING THE ENGLISH LABYRINTH, exhibited on Sted/Place, two collaborative exhibitions between South Africa and Denmark at Galerie Asb æ k, Copenhagen; 32000 DARLING LITTLE NUISANCES at Kastrupgard-samlingen museum; Licked, a solo exhibition of new works on voting, prison sentences and anti-war subjects at Michael Stevenson Fine Art, Cape Town; KYKAFRIKAANS 12 new silk-screen prints from the original collection, at SA National Gallery, Cape Town; WRITING IN THE SAND, exhibited as part of Dechirures de l’histoire, an exhibition of international artists at Musee departemental de la Haute-Saone Albert Demard, Champlitte, France.

 

2004 Nonplussed, a solo exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg; PARTICIPANT in group exhibitions at Rand Afrikaans University, Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein and Johannesburg Art Gallery; God Save The Queen, solo exhibition, Constitutional Court Gallery, Johannesburg. 

 

2005 Guest artist TEXTures exhibition, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC; participant in group exhibition at Fried Contemporary, Pretoria. 

 

2007 Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, part of a group exhibition of three artists; Aardklop arts festival, Potchefstroom: participant in a group exhibition featuring the 10 festival artists for the last 10 years; Willem Boshoff Word Forms and Language Shapes, a solo, retrospective exhibition at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg curated by Warren Siebrits; Épat, a solo exhibition at Michael Stevenson Fine Art, Cape Town. 

 

2008 Part of a group exhibition of 30 international artists curated by Anna Tilroe for Stichting Sonsbeek in Arnhem, Netherlands – WINDWOORDE, comprising of six banners made in collaboration with Mogalakwena Art Centre was used in the grand procession in Arnhem city and installed in Sonsbeek forest – an exhibition opened by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. 

 

2009 Goodman Gallery at NIROX CHILDREN OF THE STARS, large granite sculptures and other works on group exhibition; BIG DRUID IN HIS CUBICLE a performance/installation at Art Unlimited of the Basel Art Fair.

 

2010 Guest Artist Johannesburg Art Fair; BIG DRUID IN HIS CUBICLE at Arts On Main, Johannesburg; HAPPY END, a group exhibition of international artists at Kunsthalle, Göppingen, Germany, curated by Annett Reckert; Ampersand at the Daimler Contemporary Gallery, Berlin, a group exhibition of South African Art curated by Christian Ganzenberg.; SNATCH, a large metal artwork for the exhibition SPace: CURRENCIES in Contemporary African Art, exhibited at MuseumAfrica and curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe; WORDS IN THE SKY, eleven large skylights with text simulating clouds, providing an insight into manias and phobias, installed at the Hyde Park Shopping Centre in collaboration with HYPROP Investments Limited

 

2011 BLIND FISH, solo exhibition at Circa Gallery; SWAT, solo exhibition at Goodman Gallery; SETUPS AND UPSETS, solo exhibition at Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, Johannesburg University

 

2014 OH NO! Solo Exhibition at Goodman Gallery

​

2015 REAP THE WHIRLWIND, Solo Exhibition at SMAC GALLERY

​

 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS SUMMARY

​

2018 - Solo Presentation, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield, UK.

2015 - Reap the Whirlwind, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.

2014 - Big Druid in his Cubicle, ABSA KKNK, Grahamstown, South Africa.

2014 - Oh My Word! Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg South Africa.

2013 - Big Druid in his Cubicle, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.

2012 - Willem Boshoff: Text Works, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

1981 - Guest artist, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2003 - LICKED, Michael Stevenson Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa.

2004 - NONPLUSSED, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2007 - Willem Boshoff Word Forms and Language Shapes, Retrospective Exhibition, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2008 - Epat, Michael Stevenson Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa.

2009 - Big Druid in his Cubicle, Performance/ Installation, Art Unlimited at the Basel Art Fair.

2010 - Cosmos (with Karel Nel), Circa on Jellicoe, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2010 - Nirox Project Space, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa.

2011 - SWAT, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

BLIND FISH, Circa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

SETUPS AND UPSETS, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg (UJ), Johannesburg, South Africa.