The work of Ann Gollifer is both fluid and grounded, connected as closely to the ocean as it is to the lands she has called home throughout her life. 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.
View Ann’s catalogue for Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2023 and follow her on Artsy.
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). In 2024 she will undertake a residency with the Sacatar Foundation in Bahia, Brazil. Gollifer is also a founding member of Gaborone’s Art Residency Centre which provides support to Batswana artists.