Biography

Francois was born in George in the Eastern Cape in 1969.  He obtained has degree in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch, graduating in 1993.  Francois was at the vanguard of Flash animation film making in the 90’s and he continues to produce animations, as well as working in several other media: painting, sculpture and digital artwork.

His sculptures and animations elaborate on the tradition of comic art to convey more complex issues in response to a changing social and cultural landscape of South Africa.  The artist’s work is not political commentary but an investigation of memories of growing up in white South Africa.  Francois muses “I was struck by vague memories of my childhood. I mostly remembered having to be quiet on Sunday afternoons, because my parents were napping. Actually, our whole suburban neighborhood was dead quiet – and white.”

Van Reenen’s figurative sculptures are imbued with an atmosphere of nostalgia and blandness.  They are rooted in his interest in 1950s toys and comics, when a supposedly ideal post war world was full of hopes and dreams.  His characters range from dogs, cowboys, girls, boys to monsters, each always oblivious to the world around them, as though caught up in their own thoughts or dilemmas.  Yet his characters communicate with comic simplicity, companionship and loneliness, or, connection versus alienation. Very seldom are relationships set up between human characters. This implies a sense of disassociation from the external world and an individual resistance to an unrelenting reality.  But in the end the overall tone of each work leaves the viewer happy in an unsettling world.

Group Exhibitions:

2009 February  “The Cute Show” Salon 91, Cape Town

2008 September  Berlin Art Fair

2008  March  “Stroop” ABSA Klein Karoo Kunste Fees Oudtshoorn (Kanna Award Nomination for Visual Art)

2007 October  “What if the World” Gallery, Hong Kong

2007 April  “Head Room” Premises

2006 October  Rose Korber, Camps Bay

2006 July  “Studio 8” Artspace, Durban.

2006 June  Passages Project, Cite Des Arts, Paris

2005  Multiples at 34 Long Street Gallery, Cape Town

2004  Absa Atelier Finalist (Two works selected: a sculpture and a computer generated digital print, which where exhibited  at the Art B gallery in Belville, Cape Town and the Absa Gallery, Johannesburg)

2004  Exhibited drawings for Pocko People Agency at Magma Clerkenwell Gallery, London

2004  Exhibited animation at Fabrica Features Megastore, Lisbon, for United Colors of Benetton

2004  Mud Gallery , Barrydale: Sculpture and Prints

2003  SO NOW, Cape Town: Sculpture and Prints

2003  Fifteen Minutes of Fame, Voila, Cape Town: Sculpture

2003  Lytton Street Studio Group Show , Cape Town: Sculpture, Animation and Prints

2003  Veo Gallery, Cape Town: Sculpture and Prints.

1998  Unplugged III , Rembrandt van Rjyn Art Gallery, Johannesburg: Animation

1998 AVA: Sculpture

1997  Bad Books , Arts Association Bellville, Cape Town

Individual Exhibitions:

2010 May  LA-LA Land Grande Provance Gallery, Franschoek, South Africa

2009 November  “Lucky Packet”, Salon 91, Cape Town

2009 June  James Harris Gallery, Seattle, USA.

2009 June  “Tee Hee” Muti Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 February  Design Indaba, hosted by Absa

2008 August  “Happy Days” ArtSpace Berlin, Berlin, Germany

2007 December  “Sweet Surrender” “What if the World” Gallery, Cape Town

2007  “A Dog’s Life” Premises Gallery, Johannesburg

2007 November  “Sweet Surrender” ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg

2006  “Monster Love” 34 Long Street Gallery, Cape Town

2005  “Sunday Afternoon” Erdmann Contemporary, Cape Town