Artists

Vivienne Koorland is a South African Contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City, NY, USA. Her works are influenced by her upbringing during apartheid South Africa, where she was raised by a mother who survived the Holocaust. Koorland paints on hand-hewn burlap and linen and grapples with themes such as injustice, displacement, war, and sociocultural issues.

Koorland received her BA in Fine Art and Art History in 1977 from the University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. Following this, she pursued an MFA from the Hochschule der Kunste in West Berlin, Germany (1981), spent time at the Ecole des Beaux-arts in Paris, France, and then achieved her second MFA from Columbia University (1984) in New York City, NY, USA. She has held numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout her career including William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland: Conversations in Letters and Lines (2016) at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland; Shifting the Gaze: Paintings and Feminism (2011) at The Jewish Museum, New York City, NY, USA; and Reisemalheurs (Travel Woes) (2007) at The Freud Museum, London, UK. Her works are held in the collections of Anglo American, London, UK; Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston, MA, USA; Jewish Museum, New York City, NY, USA; and the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, RSA.