Tag: Jeanne Hoffman

Jeanne Hoffman works across diverse mediums and far-flung geographies. Her approach to the picture plane is navigated by the idea that to draw is to travel. The graphic mark made by the artist across the blank page is likened to travelling across a landscape such that the surfaces of her works speak to lived experience. Her paintings, drawings and ceramic objects become dwelling points for reflection, what she calls ‘temporary shelters for thoughts.’

Hoffman’s works explore the emotional and socio-cultural dimensions of space. The space of the picture plane or the spaces between objects in her assemblages are fraught with the potential of becoming and travelling. As such she is acutely aware of activating the tension between motion and stillness and the process of a work “becoming” through the relationship between discrete pictorial or sculptural elements.

Her more recent work engages the Situationist philosophy of the dérive. This is an artistic mechanism for dropping one’s usual motives for action and allowing oneself to be drawn by the attractions of the terrain. She likens this idea to “seeing things out of the corner of the eye” and allowing one’s mind to wander imaginative spaces of memory.

Jeanne Hoffman has taken part in a number of exhibitions in South Africa and abroad. She has participated in artist-in-residency programmes in Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands, most notably the Saari Mansion Residency (Finland) and the European Ceramic Work Centre (EKWC) in the Netherlands. She currently lives and works in Cape Town.

Selected exhibitions: 2018 – ‘Drift’ (solo) exhibition at 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, Investec Cape Town Art Fair with 99 Loop Gallery. 2017 – ‘Field’ at Salon91 Gallery, Cape Town, ‘Mixed Metaphors’ (solo), 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town; ‘You Leave Me With This,’ No End, Johannesburg; ‘Out of nowhere’ and ‘Folly’ at SMITH, Cape Town. 2016 – ‘Clay/Ground,’ Cavalli Estate, Stellenbosch; ‘From Whence They Came,’ SMITH and Kalashnikov, Cape Town. 2015 – ‘Thinking Ultramarine,’ UCT Centre for Curating the Archive; ‘Décor-Z’ Spier Wine Estate, Yellowwoods Art.  2013 – ‘Les oeuvres du Frans Masereel centrum’ at 9thInternational Biennial Liege, Belgium. 2009 – ‘Constallations,’ Stichtung WEP, Groningen, The Netherlands. 2008 – ‘Strange things travel with you’ (solo) Whatiftheworld, ‘Collage City/Kollaasikaupunki,’ Vuojoki, Finland. 2007 – ‘Room-travel,’ Whatiftheworld, Cape Town; ‘Common Ground,’ Lönnstrom Art Museum, Finland; ‘Paper and me,’ AVA, Cape Town. 2006 – ‘Long words on a hot afternoon’(solo) at blank projects, ‘Choice Assorted’ and ‘Illustration Nation’ with Whatiftheworld Gallery, Cape Town. 2004 – Battersea Art Fair, London.