BETH DIANE ARMSTRONG

(b. 1985 Nelspruit, South Africa)

“Sculpture, for me, is a space to explore the feeling of one’s body in relation to an object. Functional objects quite obviously explore this relationship. What is functional or non-functional is debatable especially in this strange-expanding-spacescape of life. I believe there should always be room for the obvious and non-obvious in all things.

I am always looking. I read mathematical, philosophical, scientific and medical books that go over my head. Seeking the big, grand, rushing feeling of grasping-and-not-grasping. Pushing always into the unknown. Whatever I am looking for, a fascination with density and looseness is the lens through which I see the world. It’s about how I physically and mentally feel on this earth: things are intense and then blunt, real and then unreal, meaningful and then meaningless. I am in this dynamic tension with my materials too. There is a give and take, a push and pull, an expansion and contraction – a density and looseness to working with steel. It takes a lot as it is a very demanding material: it’s heavy; it’s hot; it’s hard; it behaves unpredictably; it exhausts me. But it gives me so much back, in its permanence and reliability.”

Beth Diane Armstrong 2017

One of the leading contemporary South African sculptors of her generation, Beth Diane Armstrong captures a mastery of the steel medium.  Centered on contrasting variations of density and looseness Armstrong’s use of sculpture explores the different expressions of these two terms in relation to scale, structure, materiality, space, representation and process.

Armstrong negotiates an unremitting pull between the desire to be entirely overwhelmed and subsumed by a sculpture and the drive to resolve and contain the idiosyncratic challenges posed by it. A central ambition which continues to inform Armstrong’s process is the translation of fleeting, abstract experiences into the permanence of a physically demanding material such as steel.

Beginning as thought experiments, the works evolve according to a set of parameters which the artist prescribes. Armstrong develops these parameters on the level of underlying structures (calculations, measurements) and through the higher level realizations of the works as sculptural structures, maintaining a synchronous relationship to both aspects. These meticulous processes, her attention to detail and her astounding ability to effortlessly switch between intricate smaller works and imposing large-scale masses of steel reaffirms Armstrong ambitions to grapple with and understand the ways in which bodies experience space and translate this experience into structures, both perceptual and physical

Tim Leibbrandt 2017

Currently living and working in Johannesburg, Armstrong was born in South Africa in 1985. In 2010 she completed, with distinction, her Masters of Fine Arts at Rhodes University. Rhodes bought her BFA exhibition, Hibernation, for their permanent collection. Armstrong has exhibited several solo shows, participated in a number of group shows and projects locally and internationally, as well as being included in various private and public collections. Some highlighted commissions include the completion of a large permanent public artwork, Flag, in Oostvoorne, in the Netherlands (commissioned by the Kern Kunst Westvoorne Foundation), a large commissioned sculpture at the Design Miami/Basel Fair in Basel, Switzerland and Design Miami, Florida, and her Page for the National English Literary Museum, a 10-ton outdoor sculpture in Makhanda, South Africa. 2016 saw her launch the NELM Page outdoor commission in Makhanda and also partake in the Yorkshire Sculpture exhibition A Place in Time, hosted at the NIROX Sculpture Park at the Cradle of Human Kind. Armstrong was awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts in South Africa for 2017.

EDUCATION

2010                    Master of Fine Arts with distinction, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

2007                    Bachelor of Fine Arts, cum laude, Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018                    in perpetuum, Everard Read, Cape Town; NWU Gallery, Potchefstroom; Oliewenhuis Museum;
                           NMM Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

2017                    in perpetuum, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; National Arts Festival,
                           Makhanda, South Africa

2011                   Towards an architecture of loss, iArt , Cape Town, South Africa

                           To skip the last step, iArt Gallery Wembley Project Space, Cape Town, South Africa

2010                   Hippocampus, iArt Gallery, Cape Town; Monument, Makhanda, South Africa

2007                   Hibernation, Gallery in the Round, Makhanda, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021                         Spring Show, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020                        Gallery Opening Exhibition, Everard Read, Leeu Estates, Franschhoek South Africa
                                TINY2020, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

                                Odyssey, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

                                Summer, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

                                PINK: Art Joburg, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

                                Still, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

                                Straight Straight to the Future, online exhibition, Everard Read, South Africa & UK

2019                       Southern Aspect, Everard Read, London, UK

2018                       Summer, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

                              FNB Joburg Art Fair, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Not a single story, co-curated by Elizabeth Millqvist & Mattias Givel,
                             in association with the Wanås Foundation – Wanås Kons at NIROX Sculpture Park,
                             Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017                     FNB Joburg Art Fair, with Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

                              Bronze, Steel & Stone II, Everard Read, London, UK

2016                     Pastoral Abstraction, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

                             Opening Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

                             Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

                             A PLACE IN TIME (in association with the Yorkshire Sculpture Park UK),
                             curated by Helen Pheby, NIROX

                             Bronze, Steel & Stone, Everard Read, London, UK

                             Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

2014                     Design Miami, SouthernGuild, Miami, Florida, USA

                              The Benediction of Shade II, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              FNB Joburg Art Fair, with David Krut Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Design Miami/Basel, Southern Guild, Basel, Switzerland

                              NIROX Winter Show, NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

                             Turbine Art Fair, David Krut Projects, Turbine Hall, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Joburg Joburg, Rooftop in Commissioner Street, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Guild, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa

2013                     Southern Guild 2013 Collection, MOAD, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              The Benediction of Shade, David Krut Projects, Cape Town, South Africa

                              After the Rainbow Nation, NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa

2012                     Material/Representation, BRUNDYN + GONSALVES, Cape Town, South Africa

                              FNB Joburg Art Fair, with BRUNDYN + GONSALVES, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010                     Summer in the City, iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

                              NOVUS, iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

                             Make A Difference Foundation Exhibition, iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

                              The Mechanics and Mysteries of Perception, iArt Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

                              Johannesburg Art Fair, iArt Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2008                     Absa l’Atelier Competition, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007                     Absa l’Atelier Competition, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

                              Fourth Year Student Show, Fine Art Building, Makhanda, South Africa

                              Untitled, Salem House, Salem, South Africa

2006                    National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa

2005                    National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa

2004                    National Arts Festival, Makhanda, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2013                    NIROX Sculpture Park, NIROX Foundation, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

National English Literary Museum Makhanda, South Africa

Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa                                                      

Standard Bank of Southern Africa

COMMISSIONS/AWARDS

2017                    Standard Bank Young Artist Award – Visual Arts

2016                    Page, outdoor sculpture, NELM, Makhanda, South Africa

2015                    NELM Page outdoor sculpture, Makhanda, South Africa

2014                    Flagpole Sculpture Commission for Kern Kunst Westvoorne Foundation, the Netherlands

2011                    3 Sculptures for Prescient Investment Management Group’s first major
                            advertising campaign, Cape Town, South Africa

2010                    Not all is Black and White, All for World Foundation, FIFA World Cup Initiative

                              Academic Honours

2008                    Purvis Fine Art Prize

CONFERENCES

2009                   
‘Locating Space: An Investigation into Two and Three Dimensions in Art Practice’,
Rhodes University Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

PUBLICATIONS

2010                   
‘Hippocampus: Seahorse; brain-structure; spatial map, concept’. Masters Thesis, Rhodes University

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT AND TEACHING

2014                    Teaching wire tree making to children, French School, Johannesburg, South Africa

2013                    Teaching wire tree making to children, French School, Johannesburg, South Africa

2010                    Teaching wire tree making for the NOVUS initiative in Cape Town, South Africa

                             Short lecture course for 1^st year Architecture students, UCT, South Africa

                            Lecture on my work at Somerset College, The German School, and IEB teachers
                            of Gauteng, South Africa

2009                    Art classes for the patients of the Tower Hospital in Fort Beauford, South Africa

2008-2009          Teaching wire tree making to children at Makhanda National Arts Festival, South Africa

2007-2009          Teaching assistant for 1^st-4^th year students, Rhodes University, South Africa

2007-2008          Involved with running the Rhodes University Fine Art Department Community Outreach Project.
                            This project offers an art training programme for the learners of the Archie Mbolekwa School.
                            The classes are held at Johan Carinus Art Centre