home
artists
exhibitions
fairs 
publications
news
gallery
mailing list
Gerda Scheepers
b. 1979
lives and works in Cape Town,
South Africa

    selected works
    biography
    texts

selected exhibitions:
    MOTHER BROTHER
    Love your symptom, but not too much
    open agenda
    Sitcom
    PSYCHO SOCIO SURFACE
    Talking About 12 Paintings
    Modal Approach and Accent


︎︎︎ artists




By applying imagery as short-hand for both her own art making process or specific (cultural) signs and figurations, Gerda Scheepers explores the medium of painting. Content and formal elements of painting are remixed through cut, copy and paste with the results actively pursuing ambiguity. Her paintings, as well as her sculptures, operate like devices for containment that, ultimately crucially, fail to contain. Scheepers delves into the techniques of collage and decoupage, using them as visual and linguistic instruments to disrupt the continuum of the familiar and enable a continuum between apparently disparate registers. Simultaneously, she employs collage as a tool to didactically, and sometimes humorously, imitate the brutal fragmentation brought on by life’s daily efforts. In Scheepers’ words, “the studio functions somehow as a capsule, where possibilities and restrictions play themselves out.”

Scheepers graduated from the Dusseldorf Art Academy in 2005 and won the Art Cologne Preis fur junge Kunst in 2006. Solo exhibitions include MOTHER BROTHER (blank projects, 2024), Chapel TV (ak contemporary, 2023), The Way The Lamp (ak contemporary, 2021), CologneRooms (Mary Mary Gallery, 2019), fabric actors (Galerie PCP, 2018), Body Corporate (Mary Mary Gallery, 2016), Sitcom (blank projects, 2016), PSYCHO SOCIO SURFACE (blank projects, 2014), A Social Life (Of Image) (Mary Mary Gallery, 2013), Modal Approach and Accent (blank projects, 2012) and Low and partial: Romantic Comedy (Kunstverein Nuremberg, 2012). In 2012, she was awarded the Marianne-Defet- Malerei-Stipendium.







curriculum vitae


1979 Born Tzaneen, South Africa



education


2001 – 2005 Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

1999 – 2001 Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Arnhem



solo exhibitions

2024 MOTHER BROTHER, blank projects, Cape Town

2023 Chapel TV, ak contemporary, Cologne, Germany

2021 The Way The Lamp, ak contemporary, Cologne, Germany

2019 Rooms, Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

2018 fabric actors, Galerie PCP, Paris, France

2016 Body Corporate, Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

2016 SITCOM, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 PSYCHO SOCIO SURFACE, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 A Social Life (Of Image), MaryMary, Glasgow, Scotland

2013 Ca. Dilemma, (collaboration with Marieta Chirulescu), PIGNA PROJECT SPACE, Rome, Italy

2013 Centerfold, Possible Press Volume 3: Issue 1, Philadelphia, USA

2013 Talking about 12 paintings, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 STUDIO BALLET, screening in the SL-public gallery of the Stockholm Underground, Sweden

2012 Low and Partial Romantic Comedy, Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gsellschaft, Switzerland

2012 Modal Approach and Accent, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2012 Medium and Modality, OSLO10, Basel, Switzerland

2011 Rauminhalt Äquivalente, Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany

2011 Art Berlin Contemporary, Berlin, Germany

2011 Relations short before Form, Koffer Ausstellungsraum, Berlin, Germany

2010 Written Spoken Pictures, Center, Berlin, Germany

2010 Inside Arrangement. International II, Mary Mary, Glasgow, Scotland

2009 Taras Bookies 2007/2009, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, Germany

2008 Inside Arrangement. International, Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany

2007 The Office Projects and Others, Art Cologne Preis für Junge Kunst 2006 at Artothek, Cologne, Germany

2006 Things Prepared, Art Cologne 2006, Cologne, Germany

2006 (New Talents Program), Sprüth Magers, Cologne / Munich / London

2006 Come Garden of the Combed Rocks, Bonner Kunstverein, Peter Mertes Stipendium, Germany

2005 Lace and Traces, di.vitrine, Düsseldorf, Germany

2005 Linescape, Bar Ornella, Cologne, Germany



group exhibitions

2023   lO, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2023 Wenn's draußen grün wird, fällt mir nur noch Liebe ein II, ak contemporary, Cologne, Germany

2022 Where do I begin?, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

2021 I have made a place, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2021  The thing itself exists everywhere, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2020  Love your symptom, but not too much, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2019  the head the hand, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2019 Russian Morning, MD Bar, Cologne, Germany

2019 Im Grunde ist es die Wahrheit (Essentially it’s the Truth), Magenta Plains, New York, USA

2018 open agenda, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2018 BACK TO THE FUTURE III, Abstract Art In South Africa: Past and Present, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2018 blank, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin, Germany

2018 Da Uno a Dieci, Galleria Massimo Manini, Brescia, Italy

2017 17, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 A Painting Today, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 Alluring shapes, tempting spaces, Galerie Eva Meyer, Paris, France

2016 SHE MIGHT BE, Delmes and Zander, Cologne, Germany

2016 “Jeder sollte in der Lage sein, Kunst zu erwerben.”, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen

2016 Figure, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Furniture: a sculpture exhibition, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 Group Show, Micky Schubert, Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany

2015 Bild und Anpassung, Städtische Galerie, Waldkraiburg, Germany

2015 Back to the Future II: Abstract Art in South Africa: Past & Present, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2014 Thinking, Feeling, Head, Heart, The New Church Museum, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 next thing you know, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 Danjuma Collection: One Man’s Trash (is Another Man’s Treasure), London, UK

2014 Part 1: Katharina Marszewski and Gerda Scheepers, Galerie Warhus Rittershaus, Cologne, Germany

2014 Inside Arrangement, Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

2014 Bild Und Anpassung / Image And Adaptation, Palais Für Aktuelle Kunst, Glückstadt, Germany

2014 DON’T YOU FEEL ME, Galerie Micky Shubert, Berlin, Germany

2013 Hotel International, Galerie Warhus Rittershaus / Marsil Hotel, Cologne, Germany

2013 PAINTING FOREVER! KEILRAHMEN, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany

2013 Van Bommel Van Dam Prize exhibition, Wilhelm Hack Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany 

2013 This is the thing, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2013 blank projects in Johannesburg, Ithuba Arts Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013 The Stairs, Algus Greenspon Gallery, New York, USA

2013 Van Bommel Van Dam Prize nominees exhibition, Van Bommel Van Dam Museum, Venlo, Netherlands

2013 LIGEGYLDIGT HVORHEN, BLOT UDENFOR VERDEN, Gallerie Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen, Denmark

2013 Provinz Neue Editionen, Galerie Vera Gliem, Cologne, Germany

2013 blank projects, Art Cologne/NADA, Cologne, Germany

2012 When Form Becomes Attitude, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa

2012 3 Positionen zu Malerei, collaboration with Varda Caivano und Maria Chirulescu, Galerie Barbara Gross, München, South Africa

2012 Be with me, Galerie Peter Bergman, Stockholm, Sweden 

2012 Cocaine – Blows my brain, Spor Klüüb, Berlin, Germany

2012 Re-Opening, Deweer Gallery, Otegem, Belgium

2011 The yarn beam and the revolving stage, Galerie Thomas Flor, Düsseldorf, Germany

2011 Dwelling, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, USA

2011 Gerda Scheepers & Alistair Frost, Mary Mary Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland

2011 Morgen, Provinz Editionen, Bochum, Germany

2011 SINGLE-club, Düsseldorf, Germany

2010 Ladies Room, Galerie Warhus Rittershaus, Cologne, Germany

2010 Drawing on Coats and Hindered Kindreds, Oktober, Düsseldorf, Germany

2010 The Importance of Being Earnest, Naumannstrasse 81, Berlin, Germany

2010 A Thing is a Thing in a Whole Which it’s Not, Temporary Gallery Cologne, Mauritiuswall 35, Cologne, Germany

2010 Dearie Does the Do not Care, Halle für Kunst E.V., Lüneburg

2010 Woodman, Woodman, Who Spare That Tree, Galerie Micky Schubert, Berlin, Germany

2009 Arrival Inside, Mary Mary, Glasgow, Scotland

2009 dok25a, Düsseldorf, Germany

2007 Elegance, Kölnischer Kunstverein (collaborative work with Thea Djordjadze and Rosemarie Trockel)

2007 We Stopped in The Colonnade, Hotel, London, UK

2007 Showing Landscape, Cologne, Germany

2006 Modus, Neue Kunsthalle St. Gallen (collaborative work with Thea Djordjadze and Rosemarie Trockel)

2006 I Could Chair This Dance, Simultanhalle, Cologne, Germany

2006 Bar Ornella auf dem Hügel, Kunst:Dialoge Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany

2006 Teller und Unterschiebung, acapulco, Düsseldorf, Germany

2005 Regarding Düsseldorf – Junge Kunst in Düsseldorf, 701 e.V. Düsseldorf, Germany

2005 7, Sprüth Magers Lee, London, UK

2005 Fünf für Köln, Panzer und Schöne Aussicht, Cologne, Germany

2005 unitdèd, Plain Bar de Player, Rotterdam, Netherlands

2004 Cotton, Bone and Rock spread like a single Thing of thin and hard when wet with Ocean Water, Panzer

2004 Thea Djordjadze, Robert Elfgen, Gerda Scheepers, Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany

2004 Rheinschau, Art Cologne, Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich, Germany

2002 Klasse Rosemarie Trockel, Kunstverein Gelsenkirchen, Germany



awards and bursaries


2011 Marianne-Defet-Malerei-Stipendium, Kunstverein Nürnberg

2008 Arbeitsstipendium Kunststiftung NRW

2006 Art Cologne New Talents Prize 2006

2005 Peter Mertes Stipendium, Bonner Kunstverein

2004 Travel grant, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf



independent projects


2005 – 2006 Bar Ornella (Maibachstraße, Köln)

Bar founded and run together with other artists, where exhibitions and art projects took place once a week.

2004 – 2005 Panzer (Thebäerstr. 14, Köln)

Exhibition space, founded and run together with Jan Meier and Simon Hemmer.