About

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 have 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 de- sire to understand the machinery of contemporary visual cultures tends toward the Romantic. His consistent marriage of iconography with craftsmanship also contributes to this reading. 

Pierre Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. He has subsequently had several solo exhibitions, most recently, The Little Binche Peacock and Other Utopian Dreams, his 5th solo exhibition with WHATIFTHEWORLD, the installation includes his work as recipient of a Spier Artist Patronage Program bursary received from 2017-19. In 2018 he was the featured artist of the Andorran city of Escaldes- Engordany’s 12th Textile and Glass Symposium. Notable group exhibitions include Indian Ocean Craft Triennale (2021), 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). 

Fouché is well respected in the lace making community and has conducted many practical and theoretical workshops, most recently he was invited to present Bobbin Lace Design & Binche Cloth Manipulation at the Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ, USA. In 2006 he won the the ABSA L’atelier art competition which resulted in a 6 month Residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris. From January to April 2014 he was awarded a Prohelvetia residency at IAAB, Basel. His work is represented in the public collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, the Artphilein Foundation, Switzerland and Norval Foundation, South Africa. 

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions

Presentations

Selected Publications