Biography
Io Makandal (b. Johannesburg 1987) completed her BA Fine Art at Michaelis, UCT in Cape Town (2010). Her works encompass various media including, drawing, sculpture, installation, and pho- tography utilising found objects, detritus and mass produced materials to create oblique narratives.
Makandal has participated in numerous exhibitions in Cape Town and Johannesburg, including a solo exhibition at Blank Projects in Cape Town. More recently, she curated and participated in Cube Route, 2013, which travelled across South Africa, and was a participating artist in Transform Today 2014, a residency based in the Maboneng district of Johannesburg. In 2015 she launched the ongoing project “From Where I Was, along with artist Samantha McCulloch. Part 1 featured at Kalashnikovv Gallery (Johannesburg) and Substation Gallery (Melbourne). Part 2 / Documents and Part 3 / Circuits have been selected for the Kalashnikovv Gallery featured installations at the Tur- bine Art Fair 2015 and FNB Joburg Art Fair 2015.
She currently lives and works in Johannesburg.
Statement:
My work encompasses various topics and therefore I treat the artist statement as one point of en- try.
By re-appropriating everyday goods; both domestic and mass-produced, discarded matter and ur- ban debris I create sculptural paintings, installations and drawings. I am drawn to the unhinged and inherent contradictions between decay and development. Through the act of mutating mundane materials and combining disparate elements I transform their forms into a hybrid vocabulary. Through exploring objectness and thingness within space and on a surface, what is formed nar- rates a subjectivity in reconstructing memory and place.
What I create through the process of building, adhering, contrasting, breaking is deliberately rudi- mentary in its style, in attempt to symbolise a continuous state of development and decomposition simultaneously, parodying a form of ‘urban ecology’ festering into form. My works create a visual mind space of imaginary solutions into another world; colourful, seemingly playful yet sinister visual haikus.
2016
– Currently in residence at the NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, New York City
– FNB Art Fair Gallery Solo Projects
http://www.fnbjoburgartfair.co.za/exhibitors.html
– Kalashnikovv Berlin
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
Barclays L’Atelier Top 100
Absa Gallery
Johannesburg
From Whence They Came
Smith Gallery
Cape Town
Enjoyment of the Anti-Sublime
Group exhibition
Kalashnikovv Gallery
Johannesburg
Blank Spaces
Featuring highlights from the KKNK Festival
ABSA Art Gallery
Johannesburg
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2011
An Imaginary Solution
Blank Projects
Cape Town