Artist Database

Pierre Fouché introduces himself as a lacemaker. This designation highlights his interest in the techniques, materials, histories, and social relevance of textiles. Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. His respect for technique, tradition, and innovation has earned Fouché his place within the craft establishment as an internationally respected practitioner and teacher of contemporary bobbin lace. His penchant for arcane media and aesthetics has led his practice to include macramé, drawn thread embroidery, encaustic painting, and pinhole photography, as well as traditional painting, drawing, and printmaking.
Thematically, his work focuses on portraiture and the gaze, photography and representation, appropriation, and web-media cultures, as well as some forays into overt queer politics. Often informed by world art history, his desire to understand the machinery of contemporary visual cultures tends towards the Romantic. His consistent marriage of iconography with craftsmanship also contributes to this reading. Fouché has exhibited extensively worldwide, in both solo and group exhibitions, and he is represented in numerous public collections in South Africa and in Switzerland.

Biography courtesy of the artist.