Marolize Southwood

Marolize Southwood (b. 1994, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary artist and creator originally from Viljoenskroon, Free State. She received her BFA from the University of Cape Town in 2017, majoring in Photography and graduating with a distinction in studio work. After graduating she her practical and creative skills lead her to a plethora of in the creative ventures such as working as a florist for Lush Flowers, a designer and maker for the design agency Studio H, an assistant to ceramicist Jade Paton and even as a baker, creating bespoke art cakes.

Southwood’s creative practice demonstrates her deep fascination with the human condition in the 21st century and explores themes that are a part of this elaborate and bizarre self-constructed collective experience. Her colourful, idyllic and often humorous imagery explore notions of identity, self-reflection, intimacy, space, nature, and self-fulfilment in the post digital world. Her paintings use bold, joyful, and textured brushwork, along with an elaborate impasto technique that creates expressive and sculptural surfaces. Southwood’s work uses paint and it’s texture as an active participant in the image making itself; her painted surface becomes a geography created in oils. Reflecting on a world that is mostly viewed remotely via screens, her sculptural, tactile work is a direct reaction to the two-dimensional digital plane we constantly interact with.

While her personal practice is ever expanding and she regularly ventures into new mediums and creative avenues, she is currently a full time artist and is mostly known for her work as a painter and currently lives and practices in Cape Town South Africa. Southwood has received two recent solos with 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town. And has participated in group shows with various other galleries in Cape Town, including Salon 91, The Fourth Gallery, 131 A Gallery and Daor Contemporary.

SELECTED PROJECTS & EXHIBITIONS

2021 – To Whom It May Concern, group exhibition, Salon Ninety One, Cape Town; House Party, group exhibition, THEFOURTH, Cape Town; When it’s hot out and you just want to have a good time, group exhibition, Salon Ninety One, Cape Town; Genius Loci, group exhibition, State of the Art Gallery, Cape Town. 2020 - Cycles, patience and time machines, solo exhibition, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town; The Spectacle, group exhibition, THEFOURTH, Cape Town; 'A Hazy Shade of Winter', group exhibition, Salon Ninety One, Cape Town; Nostalgia - noun, group exhibition, Daor Contemporary, Cape Town. 2019 - In All Seriousness, solo exhibition, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town; Untitled7.99, group exhibition, 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town. 2018 - AFRAID SO, group exhibition, Previously Known As Gallery, Cape Town; Not Really, group exhibition, Previously Known As Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.