Dan Halter

About
Dan Halter (b. 1977, Zimbabwe) currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Halter’s artistic practice is informed by his position as a Zimbabwean living in South Africa. Using materials ubiquitous to South Africa and Zimbabwe, Halter employs the language of craft and curio as a visual strategy to articulate his concerns within a fine art context. Through this, as well as through photography and video, Halter addresses notions of a dislocated national identity and the politics of post-colonial Zimbabwe within a broader African context.
Recent solo exhibitions include Dust in the Balance (2024), DNA Halter: Language is a Virus at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town (2023), Get Out of Jail Free at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town (2021), Money Loves Money, at Osart Gallery, Milano, Italy (2021); Plenty Sits Still, Hunger is a Wanderer at This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne and Cross the River in a Crowd at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town in 2019. Halter has participated in numerous group shows, including We, the People: 30 years of Democracy in South Africa (2024-2025) at Norval Foundation, Body Electric (2024) at Montague Contemporary in New York, US at the South African National Gallery, curated by Simon Njami, Zeitgenössiche Fotokunst aus Südafrika at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Energy Flash – The Rave Movement, MHKA (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen), the 16th and 17th VideoBrasil (São Paulo) in 2007 and 2011, the 10th Havana Biennale in 2009, the Dakar Biennale in 2010 and Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa at Smithsonian Museum of African Art Washington DC, USA in 2013 and This is not Africa Unlearn what you have Learned at Aros Museum Denmark in 2021.
Dan Halter’s work has been included in many notable private and public collections, both locally and internationally, including: The South African National Gallery; UNISA (University of South Africa), University of Cape Town; Scheryn Art Collection, Cape Town, South Africa; SAFFCA (Southern African foundation for Contemporary Art) Collection; Artphilein Collection, Ticino, Switzerland; Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland; the prestigious Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada; Foundation H Madagascar; Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Tiroche Deleon Collection, Isreal; National Gallery of Victoria, Southbank, Australia; as well as Stichting Droom en Daad, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My experience as a white Zimbabwean now living in South Africa informs my practice. I deal with notions of a dislocated national identity and the dark humour of present realities in Southern Africa, largely a backlash to a history of oppression that continues today. I realize my work through the use of ubiquitous materials and the use of local popular visual strategies as a form of expression. This often tends towards the language of craft and curio within a contemporary fine art context. Two words that are useful in describing my art are fabric and fabrication:
fab·ric (n)
1. cloth of any type made from thread or fibers, whether woven, knitted, or felted
2. the particular texture or quality of a kind of cloth
3. the fundamental structure or makeup of something
4. the material from which something is constructed, especially a building, or the physical structure of something
fab·ri·ca·tion (n)
1. the construction of something, or something that has been constructed or made
2. the invention of something that is not true
3. a fraudulent imitation of a signature or document
(Encarta World English Dictionary (c) 1999 Microsoft Corporation.
All rights reserved. Developed for Microsoft by Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc.)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 | Dust in the Balance - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa |
2023 | DNA Halter: Language is a Virus - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Look to Windward, Fondazione Filiberto e Bianca Menna, Rome | |
2021 | Get Out of Jail Free - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Money Loves Money, Osart Gallery, Milan | |
2019 | Plenty Sits Still, Hunger is a Wanderer, This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne |
Cross the River in a Crowd - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
2018 | Please Call Me - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Patience Can Cook a Stone - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
2017 | Zimbabwean Traffic, Skövde Konstmuseet, Skövde, Sweden |
Mafuta Farm, Dillon + Lee, New York | |
2016 | The Amory Show 2016 - Pier 94, New York |
2015 | The Original is Unfaithful to the Translation - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2013 | DanHalter – HeartlanD, Special Project, Joburg Art Fair |
2012 | The Truth Lies Here - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
2011 | Dan Halter / Mappa Del Mondo, NKV (Nassauischer Kunstverein Weisbaden), Weisbaden, Germany |
2010 | Double Entry, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Shifting The Goalposts, (in collaboration with Adam Davies) Son Gallery, London & GoetheonMain, Johannesburg | |
2008 | Never Say Never, Derbylius Gallery, Milan, Italy |
2006 | Take Me To Your Leader, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 | We, the People: 30 years of Democracy in South Africa, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa |
Body Electric, Montague Contemporary, New York | |
2022 | Shout Plenty, African Artists' Foundation |
Freedom of Movement, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia | |
Europe doesn't fall from the sky, Fondazione Imago Mundi, Treviso Italy | |
The Future as Negative Spaces, ID:I Galleri, Stockholm | |
Good Neighbours, NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg | |
fonds / vonds, Oude Leeskamer, Stellenbosch | |
Norval Sovereign Art Prize, Norval Foundation, Cape Town | |
Contemporary Art Fair/ Colonial Exhibition, Galerie Kai Erdmann, Berlin | |
2021 | This is not Africa – Unlearn what you have learned, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark |
Spier Light Art, Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch | |
RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg | |
Gangwon Triennale, Gangwon, South Korea | |
2020 | Dance of Urgency, Het HEM, Netherlands |
Histories of Dance, Museu de Arte de Sāo Paulo, Brazil | |
Chateaubriand (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil | |
Anuário 2020, Palácio das Artes, Porto Portugal | |
2019 | Mapping Worlds: Selected Works from the Scheryn Art Collection, Norval Foundation, Cape Town |
LagosPhoto Festival, Lagos | |
No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 – Today, C/O Berlin Foundation | |
Rocks, The Gallery 44 Stanley, Johannesburg | |
Lost Lover, RAMPA, Porto, Portugal | |
Dance of Urgency, Q21 Museums Quartier, Vienna | |
Growbox Art Project, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town | |
2018 | The Reyden Weis Collection, Museum Weserburg, Bremen |
Hacer Noché, Santo Domingo, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico | |
Forward? Forward! Forward… Stellenbosch University Museum | |
Baggage Claims, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina | |
2017 | You & 1, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town |
Baggage Claims, Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando | |
Everyday Anomaly - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
PLAY/III Video and Performance Festival, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne | |
Two To Tango, Sperling Gallery, Münich | |
Chinafrika. under construction, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig | |
Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn | |
2016 | HISTORICODE: Scarcity and Supply, The 3rd Nanjing International Art Festival |
Mir ist das Leben lieber, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst | |
Negative Space - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
After the Thrill is Gone, Gwen Frostic School of Art, Michigan | |
Dear Europa ... - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg | |
2016 Joburg Art Fair - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg | |
Home Land Security, FOR-SITE Foundation, San Francisco | |
ENERGY FLASH - The Rave Movement, M HKA, Antwerpen | |
Nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town | |
100 Geographies, US Museum, Stellenbosch | |
Winter 2015: Collected Works, Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver | |
Artists’ Books and Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art | |
2015 | Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London |
Foreign Bodies - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale fringe | |
2015 Joburg Art Fair - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg | |
Migrations, The National College of Art and Design, Dublin | |
Thinking, Feeling, Head, Heart, New Church Museum, Cape Town | |
Brave New World…20 Years of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
2014 | Uncertain Terms - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Exact Imagination: 300 Years of Botanically Inspired Art in South Africa, Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg | |
No Fixed Abode, New Church Museum, Cape Town | |
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC | |
Ngezinwayo - Migrant Journeys, WITS Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa | |
Vegetation as a Political Agent, Parco Arte Vivente (PAV) Turin, Italy | |
Paperwork, SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa | |
Unerasable Memories: A Historic Look at the Videobrasil Collection Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil | |
2013 | Beitbridge Moonwalk, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan Weather Report - Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom |
Who is afraid of the public? ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Arts), London | |
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC | |
Digi Re-engineering, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria | |
Making Way, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg | |
2012 | Positive Tension - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
Under Constant Threat, Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto Alegre, Brazil | |
4th Protest Arts International Festival (PAIF), Harare, Zimbabwe | |
Beyond Apartheid: Sex, Race, and Politics in Contemporary Africa, Porto Alegre, Brazil | |
Making Way, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown | |
2011 | 17th VideoBrasil, São Paulo, Brazil |
7th International Triennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Tournai, Belgium | |
10 Years On, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town | |
Propaganda by Monuments, Cairo, Egypt | |
2010 | LADUMA! Rotterdam, Holland |
Dak’art, Dakar, Senegal | |
US, South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
Harare International Art Fair (HIFA), Zimbabwe National Gallery | |
Spier Contemporary, City Hall, Cape Town | |
/ + = X, Serialworks, Cape Town | |
Mooimarkshow III, Galerie Weisser elefant, Berlin, Germany | |
2009 | Project 35, NADA Miami Art Fair |
Holiday, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
ECC25 (End Conscription Campaign 25 years), Spier Wine Estate Stellenbosch | |
US, Johannesburg Art Gallery | |
WORD!, Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town | |
Encounters, South African International Documentary Festival | |
10th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba | |
Second Johannesburg Art Fair, Sandton convention centre, Johannesburg | |
Objects of a Revolution, Dominque Fiat Gallery, Paris, France | |
8th Annual Art Salon at Rose Korber Art, Cape Town | |
2008 | Big Wednesday, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China | |
Monologs, Rome, Italy and at the Gallería Animal in Santiago, Chile | |
MTN New Contemporaries, University of Johannesburg | |
Forty Years of Friendship: The Friends of The National Gallery: 1968–2008, South African National Gallery, Cape Town | |
Power Play, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town | |
First Johannesburg Art Fair, Sandton Convention Centre | |
Prints + Editions, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town | |
Studio 2666: Ons Skrik vir Niks, Blank Projects, Cape Town | |
17th Annual Art Salon at Rose Korber Art, Cape Town | |
2007 | Spier Contemporary, Spier Wine estate Stellenbosch |
16th VideoBrasil, São Paulo, Brazil | |
The Inchoate Idiosynchratic Descent into Nihlism, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town | |
The 2nd Cape Town Biennale, Blank Projects, Cape Town | |
3C Committee and Critics Choice, Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town | |
Hell Yeah, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cape Town | |
Zeitgenössiche Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin, Germany | |
16th Annual Art Salon at Rose Korber Art, Cape Town | |
2006 | Second to None, South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
The Cape Town Biennale, Blank Projects, Cape Town | |
The Last Braai 666, in collaboration with christian Nerf and ed Young, l/B’s lounge, Cape Town | |
Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, Australia | |
15th Annual Art Salon at The Bay, Bay Hotel, Cape Town |
Art Fairs
Cape Town Art Fair 2025 |
Art Cologne 2024 |
Cape Town Art Fair 2024 |
The Armory Show 2023 |
Cape Town Art Fair 2023 |
Joburg Art Fair 2022 |
Cape Town Art Fair 2022 |
Artissima 2021 |
Awards
Pro Helvetia residency in Zürich, Switzerland – 2018
CAT Cologne residency – 2017
Nanjing International Festival of Art, award – 2017
Nine Urban Biotopes, EU residency in Turin, Italy – 2014
Glenfiddich residency in Dufftown, Scotland – 2010
Nominated as MTN New Contemporaries finalist – 2008
Pro Helvetia residency in Zürich, Switzerland – 2008
Capacete residency in Rio de Janiero, Brazil from VideoBrasil – 2008
Judy Steinberg Prize, Michaelis Pianting Prize – 2001
Permanent Collections
The South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
UNISA (University of South Africa), South Africa
University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Scheryn Collection, Cape Town, South Africa
SAFFCA (Southern African foundation for Contemporary Art) Collection, South Africa
Artphilein Collection, Ticino, Switzerland
Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland
Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada
Foundation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA
Tiroche Deleon Collection, Isreal
National Gallery of Victoria, Southbank, Australia
Stichting Droom en Daad, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Ekard Collection, The Netherlands
Jorge Perez Collection, Miami, El Espacio
A4 Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe
Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected Publications
2013 Selected Works