(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

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023

The Future Remembered, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022

Sideways in Time, Knysna Fine Arts, Knysna, South Africa

2019

Deep in the Quiet, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2017

Glowing Shadows, Art Lovers Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Feather Collectors, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

2013

Legal Eagles and Other Juristic Animals, Law Circle, Pretoria, South Africa

Posing on Pedestals, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

2004

Rumble in the Jungle, Gesseau Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022

Seeing Far, Glen Carlou Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Group Miniature Show, Knsyna Fine Arts, Knysna, South Africa

2021

Persistence of Vision, Knsyna Fine Arts, Knysna, South Africa

2020

Classical Painting, Knysna Fine Arts, Knysna, South Africa

Fleeting Times, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Still, Everard Read, Online

2020

Easter, Association of Arts, Online

Phantasmagoria, Lizamore & Associates, Online

2018

Wool Gathering, Trent Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Balancing the Acts, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Drawing Exhibition, Pretoria Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

2017

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

Jan Cilliers Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

2016

Three Man Show, Gallery 011, Kramerville, Johannesburg, South Africa

Two Man Show, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Jan Cilliers Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015

Sirens and Sailors, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Not A Portrait, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

Jan Cilliers Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014

Turbine Art Fair, Art Source, Cape Town, South Africa

Little Inconsistencies, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

Grand Exhibition, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2013

Arts Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

Tom Waits for No Man, Travelling Exhibition

2012

It Fell from the Sky, Creative Studio Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2011

Altered Pieces, Thompson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Watching on White, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

2010

Parallel Worlds, Innibos Festival, Nelspruit, South Africa

Zoo II, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2009

Hybrid, Upstairs @ Bamboo, Johannesburg, South Africa

Walk on by, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Enigma, Upstairs @ Bamboo, Johannesburg, South Africa

Our World Unfiltered, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2008

Encounter, Upstairs @ Bamboo, Johannesburg, South Africa

Innibos Festival Exhibition, Nelspruit, South Africa

Dit en Dat, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

2007

Zoo, Magpie Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Project, Upstairs @ Bamboo, Johannesburg, South Africa

Space, Alliance Franse, Johannesburg, South Africa

2006

Psykotrope, Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2005

Five Women, Gesseau Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Art Alive, WHPS, Pretoria, South Africa

2004

Miniatures, Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2003

About Face, Centurion Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Femina, Arts Association, Pretoria, South Africa

No-A-Gender, Thompson Gallery, Johannesburg

2002

Drawing Conclusions, Art Association, Pretoria, South Africa

Fresh 6x8, Art Association, Pretoria, South Africa

2001

Launch, Open Window Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Refill, Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

Equus, Art Association, Pretoria, South Africa

National Print Exchange, Rhodes University Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2000

Volkskas Atelier Exhibition, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

New Signatures Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

Veiled, The Millennium Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

1999

Kempton Park Competition Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa

Reginal Turvey Bursary Award Exhibition, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Bahai Architectural Exhibition, Grahamstown Festival, Cape Town, South Africa

Double Exposure, Voss Street Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa

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Awards/Residencies

2023

Artist in Residence Exhibition, Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, China

2022

Artist of the month January, Awarded by Circle Foundation of the Arts, Lyon, France

2021

SPI Portrait award Top 100

2019

Finalist Award in Circle Foundation Artist of the Year Competition

ATKV Award for Best Book Illustrator, for Sasha word stil, written by Jaco Jacobs

2018

Commissioned to paint academic portrait of Chairman of UNISA

2015

Commissioned by the Reserve Bank to do a portrait of Governor Gill Marcus

2013

SPI National Portrait Award, Top 40, Cape Town, South Africa

2008

Represented South Africa in Focus on African Culture Exhibition, China

Top 40 in SPI National Portrait Award

2006

Cite Des Internasionale Artist in Residence, Paris, France

1999

Reginald Turvey Award, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Franken Award for fourth year student with “most varied and impressive body of work”

Puniv Bursary for Masters Degree at University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

Collections:

• UNISA, Portrait of Chairman

• Reserve Bank, Portrait of Gill Marcus

• Ellerman House Art Collection

• University of Pretoria

• Bahai Spiritual Assembly

• Stuttaford Van Lines Collection

• Rhodes University, Graphic Printmaking Collection

• Art House Gallery

• TRANSNET

• Shenzhen Fine Art Institute, China

• Ministry of Culture, China

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Selected Publications

2002     Banks, A; Van Eeden, J. 2002. The Odds on art in Casino Paintings. Communicatio, University of South Africa