Maria van Rooyen

Maria van Rooyen works in a variety of drawn mediums to explore notions of place and displacement. She often works with historical sources, observational accounts of explorers or witnesses, to address the idea of history as a subjective narrative. In her domestic scenes, the notion of home is made uncomfortable by the spatial construction that confines her figures. This sense of a disrupted or subjective space extends to her large mixed media drawings that imbue landscapes with the history and politic of Southern Africa’s place in the global economy. The impact of larger ideologies at play in society continually impact her depictions of place which becomes fractured, overlaid with currencies or confined in order to carefully disclose a contemporary politic of being ‘here.’

Collections: Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town; Fusion Boutique Hotel, Polokwane.

SELECTED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS

2018 – Cape Town Art Fair, Salon91 Booth. 2016 – That Art Fair, Cape Town. 2015 – Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91. 2014 – Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg; Cape Town Art Fair with Salon91. 2010 – The Long Way Home, solo exhibition, Salon91; Every Secret Thing at Polokwane Art Museum, Polokwane; Collateral at Fried Contemporary, Pretoria. 2009 – History(n) at UCA Gallery, Cape Town; Artist in Residence at Modern Autohaus, BMW – Mobility, Polokwane. 2008 – Association d’Arts, Biarritz, France. 2006 - Installation at Memory, Narrative and Forgiveness, reflecting on ten years of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Cape Town; Solo Exhibition Alliance Francaise, Gerard Sekoto gallery, Johannesburg.