Maja Marx
Available Works
About
Maja Marx (b. 1977 South Africa) is an artist currently living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. Marx is a proponent of contemporary abstract art; approaching painting as an optical activation of surface. She has featured in South African exhibitions, with her most recent solo exhibition, Skin of the Eye (2023), being her sixth to be hosted with WHATIFTHEWORLD; succeeding There There (2020), Chorus (2018), Glare (2016), Block (2013) and Fold (2011).
Maja Marx’s paintings are essentially hyper-activations of surface. Marx starts by mapping ‘found’ compositions onto her canvas, and then allows this process of transcription to self-proliferate. Once the optical field of each canvas has become alive, Marx uses the act of painting to literally ‘stare herself’ out onto the canvas – each layer of paint, each engagement responds to the layers beneath to become rich self-referential fields in which the physical act of looking is foregrounded; surfaces that are read, looked at and stared into all at once.
Marx is a fellow of the Ampersand Foundation (New York/ Johannesburg) and a participant of MAPS (Master of Art in the Public Sphere); an exchange between the Wits School of the Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa and the Ecole Cantonale d’art du Valais in Sierre, Switzerland. Since receiving her MFA in Fine Art (Cum Laude) from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2008, her works have been included in a range of public and private collections, additionally, in 2022 Marx participated in the Ekard Residency in the Netherlands. She has also participated recent group exhibition The Pheonix Runway, with WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery in Cape Town (2022), as well as in the South African Pavilion of the Venice Biennale (2013), and the ELIA Exhibition, Cuenca, Spain and Gent, Belgium (2006).
Selected Solo Exhibitions
| 2023 | Skin of the eye - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2020 | There There - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2019 | Chorus - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2016 | GLARE - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2013 | BLOCK: Recent works - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2011 | Fold, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2010 | Crease, Outlet, Pretoria |
| 2007 | As Far As The Eye Can Touch, The Premises Gallery, Johannesburg |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2023 | Art Brussels 2023, Brussels, Belgium |
| 2022 | The Phoenix Runway - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town |
| 2021 | RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg |
| 2016 | Women's Work, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town |
| 2014 | Capital, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria |
| Footnote, Richmond, Northern Cape | |
| 2013 | The Past Will Bury You, NIROXProjects, Johannesburg |
| Imaginary Fact, 55th La Biennale di Venezia, South African Pavillion, Venice | |
| 2012 | ReSample, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg |
| 2011 | Basic Reality, Goodman Gallery Projects at Arts on Main, Johannesburg |
| ABSA Boekrak, KKNK, Oudshoorn | |
| 2010 | Glove, Joburg Art Fair collaboration with Artist Proof Studios, Johannesburg |
| Spier Contemporary, Cape Town City Hall, Cape Town | |
| 2009 | Paper Pigeon, Pigeon Square Public Artwork, Johannesburg, in collaboration with Gerhard Marx |
| Anaphora, Michaelis Rosedale Gallery, Cape Town | |
| The Heart of the African City, African Perspectives 2009, The African City Centre (re)sourced, University of Pretoria | |
| 2008 | Away: Richmond: Map Richmond, Northern Cape |
| 2006 | ELIA exhibition: Cuenca, Spain & Gent, Belgium |
| Hollard - Waste at Work |
Art Fairs
Permanent Collections
Renee and Robert Drake Collection, Netherlands.
The Ackerman-Berman Collection, South Africa.
Homestead Collection, South Africa.
Seed Capital Collection, South Africa.
Goldberg Collection, New York, USA.
Arslanian Group Collection, Belgium.
2610’ South Architects, South Africa.
Ferreira’s Dorp, South Africa.
Goethe Institute, South Africa.
HBY Public Artworks Programme Phase 1, South Africa.
Drill Hall, South Africa.
Zonderwater Correctional Service, Cullinan.
Bois de Finges, Sierre, Switzerland.
Selected Publications
Buitendach, J. 2020. Art on the Streets: The Best of Joburg’s Public, Outdoor Urban Art Scene.
Buitendach, J. 2020. Take it Outside and Into the Heart of Public Art.
https://www.dispatchlive.co.za/news/2020-10-14-take-it-outside-and-into-the-heart-of-public-art/
Garnsey, E. 2019. The Justice of Visual Art – Creative State-building in Times of political Transition. Cambridge University Press
Wolff, I. 2018. Conversations with artists.
http://oharchitecture.blogspot.com/2018/11/conversations-with-artiststudio-marx.html