XANTHE SOMERS
Representation
Southern Guild (Cape Town, Los Angeles) : https://southernguild.com/artists/xanthe-somers
Galerie Revel (Bordeaux) : https://www.galerierevel.com/artists/37-xanthe-somers/overview/
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Bio
(b. 1992 ZW) was born and went to school in Harare, Zimbabwe. She graduated from Michealis School of Fine Art, UCT in Cape Town in 2015- she went on to be awarded a grant to study a MA Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy at Goldsmiths, University of London which she completed in 2020 with distinction. Xanthe Somers's practice is informed by the politics of aesthetics, and more significantly how the colonial history in Zimbabwe continues to manipulate aesthetic values. Her work as a ceramic sculptor looks at reimagining everyday life and examining the subtle treason of objects. Through a sense of play, bright colours, mocking tone and exaggerated shapes, the artist tries to challenge the prevailing ideas associated with normalcy, beauty and refinement which have been manipulated by the Christian-Colonial gaze fixed strongly on southern Africa.
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Xanthe recently completed the GUILD artist residency, for two months with Southern Guild in Cape Town, South Africa. March- May 2024. Xanthe won the 2024 ANNA award for female African artists, presented by Latitudes.
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Recent exhibitions​
2024 Solo show, Invisible Hand, Southern Guild, Cape Town
2024 Harewood House Biennial, Create/Elevate , Leeds, UK https://harewood.org/explore/art/artwork/xanthe-somers/
2024 154 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York, USA, Galerie Revel
2024 Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London with Galerie Revel
2023 Untitled Art Fair, Miami, USA with Southern Guild
2023 AKAA Art Fair, Paris with ARTHarare
2023 Collect Art Fair, Somerset House, London with Galerie Revel
2022 Untitled Art Fair, Miami, USA with Southern Guild
2022 Breaking the Bias, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
2022 Collectible Art Fair, Brussels with Galerie Revel
2021 A Vocabulary For Ghosts, Solo show at First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe ​​
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Collections
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1748563/fruits-of-our-forefathers-sculpture-somers-xanthe/
Private Collection of Nicky and Robert Wilson, Jupiter ArtLand, Scotland
The Eleanor Crook Foundation, USA​
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Education
MA in Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, 2019
BA Fine Art (Hons) at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, 2015​​
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Recent Press
​Elle Decoration (in print) June 2024
Ceramic Review (in print) May June 2024
https://nataal.com/1-54-nyc-2024
https://galeriemagazine.com/10-standout-objects-discovered-londons-collect-craft-fair/
https://www.sightunseen.com/2021/03/xanthe-somers-ceramics/
https://volumeceramics.com/en/blogs/infos/rencontre-avec-xanthe-somers
https://whitepaperby.com/xanthe-somers/
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