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
Currently based in London, Xanthe Somers (b. 1992) is a Zimbabwean ceramicist whose work is a critical reading of extraction economies and notions of domesticity within post-colonial contexts, with a particular lens focused on the country of her birth.
Xanthe graduated from Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT in 2015 and was subsequently awarded a grant to study MA Postcolonial Culture and Global Policy at Goldsmiths, University of London, which she completed in 2020 with distinction. Her large-scale, vibrant works carry barbed social and political critiques. The bodies of her intricate pieces are hand-coiled in the traditional way and then disrupted – their surfaces punctured, woven or adorned with meticulously shaped and painted details. Her creations evoke a sense of play, combining political commentary and hyper-ornamentation to draw attention to overconsumption, women's work, cheap labour and the impact of eco-racist practices on the Global South.
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. Xanthe's work is held in many private collections as well as public institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Xanthe's work has been published in The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, Cermaic Review, House and Garden UK, Elle Decoration UK and others.
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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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