Kirsten Sims
KIRSTEN SIMS expresses the way she views the world through painting, seeking a connection with viewers through images. Her work has a strong narrative quality and is often animated by a sartorial crowd of characters, but she just as naturally replaces the theatre of human interaction with the drama of a natural landscape. Whether familiar or imagined, place plays an important role in her work. She lives and works in Cape Town but the vista she has painted most is the ocean view from her family home in Mossel Bay. Sims completed a BA in Applied Design at the Stellenbosch Academy and her Honours degree in Illustration at Stellenbosch University. She currently works on editorial and commercial illustration projects while exhibiting both locally and internationally.
SELECTED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS
2019 – ‘As You Were’, solo exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91, Cape Town; ‘Regarding Winter’, group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town. 2018 – ‘By The Way’, solo exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; ‘Closed for the Season’, solo exhibition, Alison Milne Gallery, Toronto, Canada; Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Salon91, Cape Town; FNB Joburg Art Fair with Salon91, Johannesburg; Turbine Art Fair with Salon91, Johannesburg. 2017 – ‘Trees Make Forests’, year-end group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; FNB Joburg Art Fair with Salon91, Johannesburg; ‘Field’, group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; ‘Saturn Return’, solo exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; Turbine Art Fair with Salon91, Johannesburg; Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91, Cape Town. 2016 – ‘The Spirit of Irma’, group show at the Irma Stern Museum, Cape Town; ‘Oracle’, year-end group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; ‘Leap Year’, international online exhibition with Salon91; ‘You Are Here’, solo exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town. 2015 – ‘The Middle of Nowhere’, solo exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; ‘Middle of Nowhere, Canadian Edition’, solo exhibition, Alison Milne Gallery, Toronto, Canada. 2014 – ‘Paper is You II’, group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town. 2013 – ‘Aurora’, all-female illustration group exhibition, Salon91, Cape Town; Emerging Creative at Design Indaba, Cape Town. 2012 – ‘A Drawing a Day’, online exhibit where a new illustration was posted to the artist’s blog daily.