Stephané Edith Conradie (b. 1990; Namibia) is a lecturer in print media at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, South Africa. While she primarily trained as a printmaker, her artistic practice is invested in bricolage assemblages focusing on object ontologies. Her research and practice stem from a fascination with how people arrange sentimental objects in their homes, particularly in her family members’ homes in Namibia and South Africa.

Conradie’s work examines the histories of colonialism and creolisation embedded in domestic material culture, calling into question how identity is encoded in the private domain. These objects have provided her with a language to investigate the creolised formations of identity that are linked to South Africa’s histories of colonialism, slavery, segregation, and apartheid. Creolisation directs our attention towards the cultural phenomena and material culture that result from displacement and the ongoing dynamic interchange of symbols and practices, eventually leading to new forms with varying degrees of stability.

Conradie holds a PhD in Visual Arts from the University of Stellenbosch, where she completed her MA in Visual Arts (Art Education). In 2022, she received the inaugural Young Artist Award for participating in the Triennale Kleinplasik, followed by the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (Visual Arts category) and the Emerging Researcher Award from UCT in 2023. Conradie has also participated in various solo and group exhibitions, including Souvenir, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town (2022), Domestic Lives, Nomadic Belongings at Gallery MOMO (2019), and Ordentilikheid: A Creolised Object, Gallery MOMO (2017). Her works are housed in various local and international permanent collections, including the Leridon Collection (France), Bennetton Collection: Small Canvas Competition (Italy), and Spier Collection (South Africa). Conradie is also the winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts 2024 with selected works presented at the National Arts Festival in a presentation entitled Wegwysers Deur Die Blinkuur. 

Selected Press:

Pioneering Black Women Artists in Assemblage Art (Artwork Feature) on Artsy

A Unique Art Lover’s Experience Not to be Missed, 40 Under 40 by Robyn Simpson on Capetownetc

Stephané Edith Conradie Receives Triennial Young Artists Award by Contemporaryand