Dominique Edwards

About

“In my studio is a gathering of objects. I often think of them as ‘things’ playfully sentient in some way, artefacts of a sort: washed ashore, unearthed, happened upon – or manifestations, extruded through an imperceptible time-space slice, a suspended double-take that renders a solid object: inanimate, unknown, and yet familiar. Smooth and seamless, these anamorphous bodies are fragments of a larger cosmology I attempt to decode or understand and range in size from small secretions that might sit in the hand, to life-size pieces the human body could fold around, fit onto or into.

I am concerned with the making – or the finding – of these objects, a process that relies on the sedimentation and excavation of the thing itself. The work involved is physical, repetitive, labour intensive and slow. The object, in turn, a corporeal manifestation connected to the unconscious, resists being ‘figured out,’ known or defined and remains ‘in flux’ for months, sometimes years between periods of actively working on it and intervals of peripheral looking. No amount of drawing or planning can resolve the work – it is only through doing and making that it can be found – a first encounter of sorts, non-verbal – residing somewhere in the body, the gut and the imagination.”

Dominique Edwards, is a visual artist based in Cape Town. She works primarily in drawing and sculpture. Her practice is concerned with processes that involve the shape-shifting and transmutation of material. Her sculptures suggest semiotic systems of their own – a relational cosmology familiar to an empathic memory of known bodies and objects.

Parallel with her practice as an artist, Dominique lectures part-time in drawing, photography and visual art. She holds an MFA from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (2012), a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the University of Cape Town (2003) and a BAFA from the University of Stellenbosch (2002). In 2021 she launched Sessions, a support programme for visual artists. Her solo shows include: The Distance Between Us (2012), Buikspraak|Gutspeak (2015) and Feelthings (2019).

2026 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2025 –

In en Om Ons/In and Around US, Frank Kilbourn Collection co-curated with Sean O’Toole, Welgemeend Manor House, Cape Town

2025 –

Walk with the Endling [procession] co-led with Nicola Deane and accompanied with an improvised performance by Garth Erasmus, Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch

2024 –

Vital Signs, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town

2023 –

Another’s Warmth, Everard Read, Cape Town

2023 –

Remedy, Everard Read, Cape Town

2023 –

Pandemic Praxis Pedagogy, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town

2022 –

WITW x Krone, The seed of the fig, curated by Reservoir, Twee Jonge Gezellen, Tulbagh

2022 –

Turbine Art Fair, Off the Grid – a pebble in the mouth – curated by Maja Marx, Johannesburg

2022 –

The Phoenix Runway, curated by Reservoir at WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery, Cape Town

2021 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2020 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2020 –

Matereality, South African National Gallery, Cape Town

2020 –

Cape Town Art Fair, Guest artist with the Barnard Gallery

2019 –

Spier Light Art Festival, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

2019 –

Feelthings, Solo Show, Guest artist at the Barnard Gallery

2019 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2019 –

Monochrome, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

2018 –

Well Worn, Cavalli, Stellenbosch

2017 –

Nano.1, Barnard Gallery, Newlands, Cape Town

2017 –

Michaelis Student Auction, Smith Gallery, Cape Town

2016 –

Liminal Geographies, Barnard Gallery, Newlands, Cape Town

2016 –

Nano, Barnard Gallery, Newlands, Cape Town

2016 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2015 –

But he doesn’t have anything on! Commune 1, Cape Town

2015 –

However, Art Hub Studios, London

2015 –

FNB Art Fair, Johannesburg

2015 –

Picture and Paper, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town

2015 –

Buikspraak/Gutspeak, Solo Show, Commune 1, Cape Town

2014 –

Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg

2014 –

Imago Mundi: The Art of Humanity, Treviso, Italy

2014 –

Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town

2013 –

Summer Salon, Commune 1, Cape Town

2013 –

Terminal, Curated by Adrienne van Eeden Wharton, Jean Brundrit and Svea Josephy for the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Art’s programme on LAND, Exhibited on street poles throughout Cape Town City Bowl

2013 –

LAND: Barkly West This Place of Mine, presented within the context of the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Art’s seminar programme on small cities and personal narratives, Iziko Slave Lodge, Cape Town

2012 –

Salvo, Commune 1, Cape Town

2012 –

MFA Graduation Exhibition, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town

2012 –

VIP Art Fair, work selected for the first International MFA Online Art fair

2012 –

The Distance Between Us, Solo Show, Commune 1, Cape Town

2011 –

Heimlich Manoeuvres, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town & The Substation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

2010 –

This is Not Final, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town & The Substation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

2009 –

Voices, curator of the Photography exhibit for the End Conscription Campaign’s 25th Anniversary, Spier

2007 –

Fine, Rust en Vrede, Durbanville 2003 – Krisp, Art.b, Bellville

2002 –

Section 53 Graduate Exhibition, Department of Fine Art, Stellenbosch University

2002 –

Photo/Art, Cape Town Month of Photography, Stellenbosch University