Angela Banks
(b. 1977, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Living and working during an uncertain time in South Africa, I am happy to escape it all by delving into painting in my studio on a daily basis. Creating my own narratives and realities in the paintings is a way of escaping the real world for a while, and instead focusing on that which is appealing and uplifting.
As an artist, I am largely influenced by what I consider to be beautiful and want to inspire people to look more carefully at the world around them, to discover charm in unusual places. By exploring the delicate relationship between man, animal and nature, I hope to create an alternative reality where things work very differently and life becomes a type of dream. This too is what I wish for the viewer, to be lost in imagination when standing in front of a painting, to slow down and be lost in another world. – Angela Banks, 2023
Angela Banks is a fine artist living and working in Johannesburg. She received a BA (Fine Arts) in 1999 and MA (Fine Arts) in 2003 from the University of Pretoria. She has since taken part in numerous exhibitions throughout South Africa and abroad, and this is her fifth major solo exhibition.
She has been on residencies in both France and China.
Banks is inextricably connected to the portrait as subject, both human and animal, and is in constant pursuit of what lies behind the projection of the outer appearance of a subject. She describes her work as ‘a surface search for the hidden reality or identity of the individual, the real story behind the facade’.
The conflict between masquerade and truth, with regards to identity, stems from studies she did delving into Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnival theory. He differentiates between the ‘official’ world where one has a true and real official identity, and the carnival world that allows one an unofficial, ‘made up’ identity. Banks finds that much of life is a type of masquerade, where the ‘made up’ has become common place. The disguise is aided by the various masks we adorn ourselves with in order to feel accepted or powerful or ‘good enough’. In previous works the artist worked with hybrid human/animal figures, where the animal head became the mask worn to either hide or enhance the individual’s identity. In her latest body of work, the animal becomes the subject’s companion, confidant, or counterpart.
The depiction of the relationship between human and animal stems back to our prehistoric ancestors who shared their world in paint on cave walls. As John Berger notes, our first paintings and symbols were of animals and paradoxically ‘what distinguished man from animals was born out of our relationship with them’. It therefore makes sense to Banks that visually juxtaposing human and animal exposes many large and small intricacies of our humanity. Who we are at our core is evident in who we are like, or not like, in the animal world. Banks likes to look at the relationship created by the human figure and animal creature cast together within a specific space or context, in order to discover more about the character and hidden truths of the painted person.
In her work, Banks aims at capturing in permanent paint, a beautiful yet impermanent moment in time. Her meticulous attention to detail and form produces whimsical narratives of identity through the idiosyncratic relationships between human and animal.
EDUCATION
1999 BAFA, University of Pretoria, South Africa
2003 MAFA, University of Pretoria, South Africa