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Dominique Cheminais | About the Artist

Dominique Cheminais (b 1984) is a novelist and painter from Cape Town, South Africa. In 2010, she had an exhibition of paintings, titled For Esme with Love and Squalor, at Blank Projects. Shortly afterwards she stopped painting entirely and dedicated herself to writing fiction. She is the author of a collection of short stories, Slim Foot on the Neck of a Dead Lion and Immovable Movers, a book of abstract poetry. Her first novel, The Animal Breaking Through the Flesh, came out in 2015 followed by her second novel Eighty-Four Thousand.

Her most recent novel Indefinite Holiday will be published in the US later this year through Pig Roast Publishing. Her novels now provide the inspiration for her paintings. Since re-entering the art world in July 2022, she has shown work on FNB Joburg Art Fair with Stevenson Gallery, participated in a group show presented by Guy Simpson at Under Projects, and done a residency to launch her novel Many Shallows with A4 arts foundation, painting the walls and ceiling of the Goods space at Proto A4. In January of 2023 she had a solo exhibition of paintings at THK Gallery in Cape Town, Things Done While Dreaming. In March 2023 THK Gallery showed her work at Cape Town Art Fair and in August at Enter Art Fair in Copenhagen. In November 2023 she had a solo exhibition of drawings titled Character Study at Church Projects in Cape Town and participated in the summer group show The Warmth of the Other at Everard Read. In May 2024 presented a solo exhibition for Art Club with Strauss & Co titled Three Great Loves. The show launched her new book The Maze which is the final installment of the Many Shallows series. In October 2024 she had a solo exhibition of paintings at Kalashnikovv titled A Cage in Search of a Bird.