Artist Database

Ciara Dunsby (b. 2000) is a Cape Town-based visual artist who primarily works in sculpture and drawing. She graduated with a BAFA from the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town)
in 2022. Dunsby’s practice explores the fluidity of memory, creating works that appear animated yet are permanently fixed in time. She approaches her process intuitively, allowing for discovery and exploration of familiar objects’ materiality and meaning.

Her work has been exhibited in group shows across Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Knysna, including at Suburbia Contemporary, Blank Projects, Melrose Gallery, and Under Projects. In 2023, Dunsby was an artist in residence with SAFFCA and FEDE Arthouse, and a finalist for the Cassirer Welz Award in
collaboration with Bag Factory Artists’ Studio and Strauss & Co. She won the Simon Gerson Prize for her undergraduate exhibition in 2022.

In her statement Perspectives of Fire, Dunsby reflects on themes of home, landscape, and belonging, drawing connections between the physical and the emotional through her intuitive creative
process. She explores how notions of home transcend physical structures, delving into the symbolic significance of the earth, soil, and natural elements.