Pierre Fouché (b. 1977, Pretoria) introduces himself as a lacemaker. This designation highlights his interest in the techniques, materials, histories, and social relevance of textiles. His respect for technique, tradition, and innovation has earned Fouché his place within the craft establishment as an internationally respected practitioner and teacher of contemporary bobbin lace. His penchant for arcane media and aesthetics has led his practice to include macramé, drawn thread embroidery, encaustic painting, and pinhole photography, as well as traditional painting, drawing, and printmaking. Thematically, his work focusses on portraiture and the gaze, photography and representation, appropriation, and web-media cultures, as well as some forays into overt queer politics. Often informed by world art history, his desire to understand the machinery of contemporary visual cultures tends toward the Romantic. His consistent marriage of iconography with craftsmanship also contributes to this reading.
Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. In 2018 he was the featured artist of the Andorran city of Escaldes- Engordany’s 12th Textile and Glass Symposium. Notable group exhibitions include Lace/not lace at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey; Crafted: Objects in flux at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2018), Women’s work at the Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), as well as the touring exhibition, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, first exhibited at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York (2015). His work is represented in the public collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery and the Artphilein Foundation, Switzerland.
Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. In 2018 he was the featured artist of the Andorran city of Escaldes- Engordany’s 12th Textile and Glass Symposium. Notable group exhibitions include Lace/not lace at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey; Crafted: Objects in flux at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2018), Women’s work at the Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), as well as the touring exhibition, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, first exhibited at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York (2015). His work is represented in the public collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery and the Artphilein Foundation, Switzerland.
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Artworks by Pierre Fouché
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Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2019 The Little Binche Peacock and Other Utopian Dreams - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2017 Vreesaanjaende Verligting - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2015 The Fallen and the Drowned - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2014 The lacemaker’s studio - DOCK, Basel
2012 These waves - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2011 Fred, Denis & other Portraits - VOLTA7, Basel, Switzerland, WHATIFTHEWORLD
2008 Convoluted involvement - Bell-Roberts, Cape Town, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg
2006 The distance between us - Bell-Roberts, Cape Town
2005 Excluded & Unsaid - Blank, Cape Town
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2020 MATERIALITY - Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2019 FESTIVAL OF LIGHT - Spier Estate, Stellenbosch
2019 BOBBIN LACE DESIGN & BINCHE CLOTH STITCH MANIPULATION - Facilitator of a two-day workshop at the Hunterdon Art Musuem, Clinton, NJ, USA.
2018 EBB ‘N’ FLOW-LACE, PLACE AND CLIMATE by Jane Atkinson, with showcases by International Lacemakers. Walford Mill Museum, Wimborne, UK.
2018 LACE, NOT-LACE (Curated by Devon Thein), Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, USA.
2018 THE 12TH TEXTILE AND LACE SYMPOSIUM, CAEE (Escaldes-Engordany Art Gallery), Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra.
2018 SUNDAY SERVICE - A queer art exhibition curated by Brett Charles Seiler and Heinrich Groenewald. GUS, Stellenbosch. SA
2017 YOU AND I (curated by Ziphozenkosi Dayile and Kemang Wa Lehulere), A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, SA
2016 AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE - Fashion Politics and culture in Contemporary South African Art (Curated by Andrew Heinlich), Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Kalamazoo, USA.
2016 DEAR EUROPA - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2016 WOMEN’S WORK - Crafting stories, subverting narratives (curated by Ernestine White & Olga Speakes), Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
2015 FOREIGN BODIES. WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA.
2015 QUEER THREADS - Crafting Identity and Community (Curated by John Chaich). Decker Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, USA.
2015 CRAFTED: OBJECTS IN FLUX (curated by Emily Zilber), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA.
2019 The Little Binche Peacock and Other Utopian Dreams - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2017 Vreesaanjaende Verligting - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2015 The Fallen and the Drowned - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2014 The lacemaker’s studio - DOCK, Basel
2012 These waves - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2011 Fred, Denis & other Portraits - VOLTA7, Basel, Switzerland, WHATIFTHEWORLD
2008 Convoluted involvement - Bell-Roberts, Cape Town, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg
2006 The distance between us - Bell-Roberts, Cape Town
2005 Excluded & Unsaid - Blank, Cape Town
Selected Group Exhibitions:
2020 MATERIALITY - Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2019 FESTIVAL OF LIGHT - Spier Estate, Stellenbosch
2019 BOBBIN LACE DESIGN & BINCHE CLOTH STITCH MANIPULATION - Facilitator of a two-day workshop at the Hunterdon Art Musuem, Clinton, NJ, USA.
2018 EBB ‘N’ FLOW-LACE, PLACE AND CLIMATE by Jane Atkinson, with showcases by International Lacemakers. Walford Mill Museum, Wimborne, UK.
2018 LACE, NOT-LACE (Curated by Devon Thein), Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, USA.
2018 THE 12TH TEXTILE AND LACE SYMPOSIUM, CAEE (Escaldes-Engordany Art Gallery), Escaldes-Engordany, Andorra.
2018 SUNDAY SERVICE - A queer art exhibition curated by Brett Charles Seiler and Heinrich Groenewald. GUS, Stellenbosch. SA
2017 YOU AND I (curated by Ziphozenkosi Dayile and Kemang Wa Lehulere), A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, SA
2016 AFTER THE THRILL IS GONE - Fashion Politics and culture in Contemporary South African Art (Curated by Andrew Heinlich), Richmond Center for Visual Arts, Kalamazoo, USA.
2016 DEAR EUROPA - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2016 WOMEN’S WORK - Crafting stories, subverting narratives (curated by Ernestine White & Olga Speakes), Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
2015 FOREIGN BODIES. WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA.
2015 QUEER THREADS - Crafting Identity and Community (Curated by John Chaich). Decker Gallery, MICA, Baltimore, USA.
2015 CRAFTED: OBJECTS IN FLUX (curated by Emily Zilber), Boston Museum of Fine Arts, USA.
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