Chris Soal (b. 1994) is an award winning, emerging South African artist. Soal’s studio-based practice is sculptural in its output, working with objects and materials in ways which show not only a conceptual engagement with the contexts and histories of the objects, but that also re-enforce the body as a site for knowledge reception and production.

Soal’s works seek to make a poetic statement through the simplest of means, engaging the viewer’s spatial awareness and perception while challenging societal assumptions of value. Through his use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, along with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable, sandpaper and other industrial materials, Soal’s work intuitively develops the familiar to the point of the uncanny. Soal’s works can be considered as a social abstraction that is deeply rooted and reflective of having grown up in Johannesburg, South Africa.

In 2017, Soal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts (Hons) at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was awarded the PPC Imaginarium Award in 2018, alongside being named the winner of the Sculpture category. He has been awarded residencies by the RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal (2019); by the South African Foundation of Contemporary Art in South Africa (2018), and Brussels (2022); and by the Nirox Foundation, Cradle of Humankind (2021). He is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative – Young Leaders (2023 – 2024).

Recently Soal has held solo exhibitions with WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery in Cape Town (2024), Secci Gallery in Pietrasanta (2024) and Milan (2022), and with Piero Atchugarry Gallery in Miami (2023). Notably, Soal was selected as one of ten contemporary artists to participate in the 5th edition of the Dior Lady Art project in 2020/2021. Soal’s work forms part of significant private and public collections both locally and internationally, including the Brooklyn Museum (USA), MACAAL Museum (Morocco), LAM Museum (Netherlands), The Bunker Artspace (USA), Galila’s P.O.C. (Belgium), Arsenal Contemporary (Canada), The Braunsfelder Family Collection (Germany), the Mona Museum (Tasmania) and the Cloud 7 collection (Belgium), amongst others.