Artist Database

Jeremy Wafer, a South African sculptor and printmaker, was born in Durban in 1953 and raised in Nkwalini, KwaZulu-Natal. He obtained his BA in Fine Art from the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg in 1979, followed by a BA Honours in Art History in 1980, an MA in Fine Art in 1987, and a PhD in 2016 from the University of the Witwatersrand. Wafer's artwork reflects on boundaries, dislocation, and memory and explores the global South-North relationship to various colonial legacies.

Wafer has been awarded several prizes and artist residencies, including the Standard Bank National Drawing Prize in 1987, the Sasol Wax Art Award in 2006, and a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, France in 2017. He has exhibited locally and internationally and was notably featured in the South African Pavilion of the 56^th Venice Biennale in 2015. His artwork is held in the collections of prestigious institutions such as the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of African Art in Washington DC, USA; the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.