Ann Gollifer

South Africa

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

  • 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.

Collections

  • Pas Collection, Belgium
  • Holbar Collection, Lichtenstein
  • Africa First Collection, Israel
  • The Sainsbury Africa Galleries, The British Museum, London, UK
  • The Triangle International Art Workshops, New York, USA
  • University of South Africa (UNISA), Pretoria, South Africa
  • The Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • The National Museum, Gaborone, Botswana
  • The Thapong International Art Workshop, Gaborone, Botswana
  • The Mbile Art Collection, Lusaka, Zambia

Grants, Residencies and Awards

  • 2024 Sacatar Foundation Residency, Bahia, Brazil
  • 2023 British Art Network (BAN) Curatorial Forum

Selected Works

Continental drift

2024
Botswana ochres, graphite and photocopy
transfer on paper
120 x 80 cm

All At Sea: Sea Bed

2022
Botswana ochre watercolour on Arches 400 gsm
160 x 120 cm

Hold on

2022
Botswana ochre watercolour on Arches 400gsm
160 x 120 cm

Hold on: Rise up

2022
Botswana ochre watercolour on Arches 400gsm
160 x 120 cm

Deep Time (Part 2)

2021
Botswana ochres on Arches paper 300gms
208 x 127 cm

Leaf mother

2019
Watercolour on paper
76 x 76.5 cm

She and he

2019
Watercolour on paper
56.5 x 76 cm

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