Ann Gollifer

South Africa

Available works

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About the Artist

Born in 1960 in remote Guyana to British and Warao-Arawak parents, and based in Botswana since 1985, Gollifer draws deeply on the rich materialities of nature to explore the relationship between identity and place. She is known for her use of the natural ochres of Botswana, found in soils and stones, as a water-based painting medium.

She was taught the practice of processing these earth pigments into paints by a traditional Motswana painter and healer from Mochudi, south east Botswana, Mma Motsei Nkwemabala. This labour-intensive process involves grinding and then dissolving the powdered pigments in water and gum arabic, evaporating off the water, and then painting with them just as one would work with watercolour paints.

Gollifer was educated in the United Kingdom, and completed a Masters in History of Art at Edinburgh University in 1983. She is an artist-member of the Thapong Visual Art Centre in Gaborone, of which she was part of the founding executive committee. Gollifer has had solo exhibitions with Guns & Rain (2020), Ed Cross Fine Art in London (2023), and her work has been exhibited at 1-54 African Art Fair London (2021), Untitled Art, Miami (2020) and Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023). She has recently completed a Sacatar Foundation residency in Bahia, Brazil (2024). Gollifer is also a founding member of Gaborone’s Art Residency Centre which provides support to Batswana artists.

Exhibitions

2025 Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Guns & Rain, Cape Town
2024 HOLD ME SAID THE EARTH, Origins Centre Museum, solo exhibition, Johannesburg
2024 Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, with ReCurate Botswana
2024 DECADE : 10 Years of Guns & Rain (group exhibition), Johannesburg
2023 A Sum of Days, solo exhibition, Ed Cross Fine Art, London
2023 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Guns & Rain
2022 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Guns & Rain
2021 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair, London, Guns & Rain
2020 UNTITLED ART, Miami Beach
2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Guns & Rain
2020 “Difficult Women”, group show, Gaborone Museum, Botswana
2018 Also Known As Africa (AKAA), Guns & Rain, Paris
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Guns & Rain, Cape Town
2017 “All Your Secrets”, with Jo Rogge, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2017 “Omang”, with Shepherd Ndudzo, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg
2017 Art Africa Fair, Cape Town
2016 Turbine Art Fair, LL Editions and Guns & Rain.
2015 OMANG? – “Who are you?”, solo exhibition at Sophie Lalonde Art, Gaborone
2015 “Under an African Sun” with Leo Hassaris, London.
2015 Turbine Art Fair, LL Editions and Guns & Rain.
2011 “Living on a Horizon”, solo exhibition, Circa, Johannesburg.
2010 “What am I doing here Ke Dirang Ha?”, solo exhibition, BICHA Gallery, South Bank, London.
2008 Open Studio, Dumbo, Triangle Workshop. New York.
2006 “Linhas de Sangue, Territories of the Heart”, solo exhibition, Museu Nacional de Arte, Maputo, Mozambique.
2002 “Monomotapa”, residency exhibition, Fordsburg Studios, Johannesburg.
2001 “Hoche Koche”, multi media performance with Steve Dyner and Tumbuka Dance Compnay (showed at HIFA Harare, Grahamstown Festival, Dance Festival Avignon, Dance Umbrella Johannesburg)
2000 “Three Women Three Perspectives”, group show with Coex ae Qgam (Dada) and Neo Matome Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Windhoek & Gaborone; funded and hosted by the Alliance Francaise, Botswana.