AVITHA SOOFUL (b. 1964)
Untitled
year unknown
pencil on paper
size unknown
BIOGRAPHY
Avitha Sooful is an artist, activist and academic.
She studied art during the tumultuous years when the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) was a place of student uprisings, political turmoil and brutal police repression. Her commitment to the anti-apartheid struggle during her early years is reflected in her artistic output, which incorporates a range of media from oil paintings to etchings, as well as wood and metal sculpture. The notion of landscape as both a political and feminist trope is central to her work. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, both nationally and internationally.
Sooful is a feminist scholar who began her academic career in KwaZulu-Natal before relocating to Gauteng. She worked at the Department of the Visual Arts and Design at the Vaal University of Technology before taking up a position as a senior lecturer in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria.
She served as the National President of the South African National Association for the Visual Arts. She has also been a judge for various competitions, including the Sasol Wax Competion, the PPC Cement Competition, and she adjudicated the Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award for several years.