Clive van den BergNew Work
Clive van den Berg has forged a distinguished career as an artist, curator, designer, lecturer and cultural activist. He is known as much for his intelligence and lively wit as he is for his extraordinary craftsmanship in painting, sculpture, printmaking and in film. Most recently he was Curator of Spier Contemporary (2007) and is currently the Curator/Designer of The Workers Museum, Newtown, Johannesburg and of several public projects in Sharpeville, Soweto and at Freedom Park, Pretoria. Van den Berg is represented in major public collections including Iziko South African National Gallery.
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His current exhibition departs from convention, challenges assumptions about media, expresses concerns about the state of art and of nation and explores anxieties about the fate of a ravaged planet. But Van den Berg’s strength lies, above all, in his assertions of the possibilities of being otherwise in order to make opportunities for transformation without forgetfulness.
Artist Bio
Clive van den Berg (b. 1956, Luanshya, Zambia) is a Johannesburg-based artist, curator and designer who has focused on pioneering the insertion of queer perspectives into the larger rewrite of South African history throughout the course of his prolific forty-year career. Van den Berg has produced a range of works spanning a variety of mediums delve into the porous nature of human existence and the landscapes we inhabit, creating a profound commentary on vulnerability, memory, and the intersection of personal and collective histories.
Van den Berg’s retrospective, titled 'Porous', took place at the Wits Art Museum in August 2024, and was accompanied by a major new book published by Skira.
In his paintings, he delves into the porous nature of land, acting as a vessel for lived experiences and unearthing unresolved layers beneath its surface. Within Van den Berg’s practice, the landscapes serve as a departure point, transcending physicality to evoke a haunting absence that guide viewers through imagined topographies. Van den Berg's sculptural practice is equally captivating, focusing on the male form and the symbolic resonance of skin to explore themes of vulnerability and exposure. Through this vulnerability, he challenges traditional notions of masculinity and brings to light the ever-present spectre of mortality. His work serves as a poignant meditation on love, loss, and resilience.
His public projects have included the artworks for landmark Northern Cape Legislature and, since he has joined the trace team, museum projects for the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Constitution Hill, Freedom Park, the Workers Museum, The Holocaust and Genocide Centre and many other projects.
Solo exhibitions include: 'Porous,' Wits Art Museum (2024); 'Remembering, a survey exhibition of paintings, prints and sculptures,' Kwa-Zulu Natal Society of Art Gallery, Durban (2021); 'Personal Affects, Museum of African Art,' New York (2005).
Major curated exhibitions include: 'If You Look Hard Enough, You Can See Our Future: Selections of Contemporary South African Art from the Nando’s Art Collection,' The African American Museum of Dallas, Dallas (2023); 'Breaking Down the Walls: 150 years of Art Collecting,' Iziko SANG, Cape Town (2023); 'Screening of Memorials Without Facts: Men Loving,' São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo (2018); 'Earth Matters: Lands as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa,' Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C. (2013-2014).
Collections include: El Espacio 23, Miami; Amant Foundation, New York; A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg; Spier Arts Trust, London; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Washington DC and Video Brasil, Sao Paulo.
Van den Berg lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
