Abrie Fourie born in Pretoria, South Africa, 1969 presently divides his time between Richmond, Northern Cape, South Africa, and Berlin, Germany. He bases his practice mainly on photography and engages in teaching, publishing, and curatorial projects. His approach to image-making is “less about determining a place than about circling the relationship between spaces, signs and the self, referring to the quiet tension between absence and presence, abstraction and reality.”
Solo exhibitions of Fourie’s work have been held at Camouflage, Brussels (Belgium), the Museum for African Art, New York (USA), at the Forum d’art Contemporain, Sierre (Switzerland), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (Germany), Johannesburg Art Gallery (South Africa), Iwalewahaus, Bayreuth (Germany), SMAC Art Gallery, Cape Town (South Africa), SCAD, Savannah (USA), SCAD, Atlanta, (USA), Fried Contemporary, Pretoria (South Africa), the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein (South Africa), Galerie Wedding, Berlin, (Germany), Museum of Temporary Art, Cape Town and The Market Theater Gallery, Johannesburg (South Africa).
Two-person exhibitions include “ENEMIES/ VYANDE” with Santu Mofokeng at Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees, Oudtshoorn, South Africa (2002); “SEE #1 – 3,” a collaboration with Ella Ziegler at the Parking Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2006), Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa (2007) and at the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin, Germany (2009). “Soil Soul” was also with Ella Ziegler at the Experimental
Gallery, Tjaden Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA (2021).
Selected group exhibitions include “Translation/ Seduction/ Displacement” at White Box Gallery, New York, USA (2000); “Sugar in the petrol” at The British School, Rome Gallery, Italy (2004); “POST” Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2004); “Real Presence – Floating Sites,”, 51st International Biennial of Contemporary Art Venice, Italy (2005); “Cosmos Mundo Forever,” Triennial De Luanda, Angola (2007); “1910-2010 From Pierneef to Gugulective: A Fresh Look at a Century of South African Art,” South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2010); “Positioning Osmotic Impulses,” Prison Neukölln, Berlin, Germany (2012); “THE SPACE BETWEEN US,”, a project by IFA, in public space of Berlin (2013) and Stuttgart (2014); and “The Day will come when Photography revises,” Triennial of Photography, Hamburg, Germany (2015). He participated in SAVVY Funk Every Time A Ear di Soun framework, documenta 14, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin (2017); “Streams of Consciousness,” Bamako Encounters – African Biennale of Photography (2019/2020); “Angst, keine Angst”, Times Art Center and “Territories Under my Skin” Changing Room, Berlin, Germany (2021).
Since 2005 he has been the artistic director for Modern Art Projects South Africa (http://map-southafrica.org/). While lecturing at the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa (1993-2007), he established “outlet” (2002-2007), an experimental exhibition space. Curatorial projects include “Mine”, South African video art that has been shown internationally in Dubai (UAE), Bayreuth (Germany); Johannesburg and Bloemfontein (South Africa); Bordeaux and Paris (France); Victoria (Australia) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)—a revised version entitled “The Film Will Always Be You” in 2015 at Tate
Modern London.
More