Sanell AGGENBACH (b. 1975)

BIOGRAPHY

Sanell Aggenbach currently lives and works in Woodstock, Cape Town – the city of her birth. Moving between the disciplines of painting, printmaking and sculpture, she deals primarily with the intersection between history and private narratives, and the process of recall and interpretation.

Since 2003, Aggenbach has focused mainly on subverted feminine tropes and feminist themes. Her sculptural works, primarily in bronze, parody Western masterpieces by artists ranging from Michelangelo, Henry Moore and Andy Warhol to JH Pierneef (whose work is also held in the SABC Collection), taking a refreshing look at these pivotal references from a woman’s perspective.

‘My earlier works relied heavily on processing found imagery, rethinking associations and creating new fictions. These works were often an amalgamation of historic references with private narratives and forms part of a process of investigating pathologies and deconstructing the past. My primary intention is to construct subtle paradoxes by introducing a quiet humour, either formally or materially.’

Her many achievements include winning the Absa L’Atelier Award. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including Sasol, Absa, Spier, SABC, Red Bull (Austria), the South African National Gallery, 21C Museum in Kentucky (USA) and Anglo Gold.

SOURCE
‘Sanell Aggenbach,’ Whatiftheworld Gallery, https://www.whatiftheworld.com/artist/sanell-aggenbach/.