SHANY VAN DEN BERG

(b. 1958 Riversdale, South Africa)

Shany van den Berg's artistic practice stems from her life as a woman, mother and professional artist. Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in slipping between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural, she investigates and interrogates the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to mother earth. With subtle symbolism and technical agility, her artwork is diverse, ranging from portraiture, figuration  and mixed media, combined with abstraction and sculpture. She reconstitutes her stream of consciousness as both fable and history, binding together a layered ‘map’. This serves as both a solitary interior landscape of self-reflection and the more universal language of humanity's journey through one’s life. Shany van den Berg’s artworks poignantly remind us that we are all unique and inescapably part of one human race and planet.

 

She is based in Stellenbosch.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

BinneTuin / GardenWithin, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2023

Garden of Her Dreams, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2022

Her Garden, Everard Read, London, UK

2021 

nōs / ons, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2019  

Dreampond, Everard Read, London, UK

2018  

Fluisteringe vanaf n Leliepoel/ Whispers from a Lily Pond, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2017

(in)filtrati on of time, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015  

Al(l)een, The Gallery at Grande Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa

New works, Gallery at La Grande Provence, Franschhoek, South Africa

2013

Hinterland, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

2011

Siel van my Vel, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2010  

Solo, IS Art at Le Quartier Francais, Franschhoek, South Africa

2008

In gesprek met, Smelik & Stokking, Den Haag, Netherlands

2007     

..(h)erken...ken...en..., Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Gedagtes wat reis, My Own Choice Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands

2006

Dwaaltuin, Grande Provence Gallery, Franschhoek, South Africa

Die Fees Gees, Cultivaria at Vrede en Lust Wine Estate, Paarl, South Africa 

2003

Construction site, Limeline Design, Cape Town, South Africa

2001 

Vlug in tyd, Dorp Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

1999 

My shadow, my echo, me, Bang the Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2022 

Spring, group show, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Things I’d like to remember, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2021 

Offering, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

2020 

On Being, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Journeys of the Mind, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa

Toe ek 21 was, Toyota US Woordfees, Stellenbosch, South Africa

STILL, Everard Read, UK & South Africa

2019

Selected Artists, Knysna Fine Art Gallery, Knysna, South Africa

The Ampersand Foundation / 21 Year Celebration Exhibition/ A Vision of Jack Ginsberg, UJ Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Southern Aspect, Everard Read, London, UK

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Synchronous, Knysna Fine Art, Knysna, South Africa

2018

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2017 

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

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

People and Portraiture, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Summer, Everard Read, London, UK

Winter, Everard Read, London, UK

2016 

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

Opening Exhibition, Everard Read, London, UK

Winter Collection, Group Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2015 

Fear & Loss – Industrial Karoo Group installation, Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa

100 Years, Die Burger, Cape Town, South Africa

Summer Sculpture Garden, with Everard Read, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, 

South Africa

Homage, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Winter, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2014 

Summer Season, D-Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Fear & Loss, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Summer of Sculpture III, with Everard Read, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

Magicus, group exhibition, D-Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2013 

Cape Town Re-Imagined, Suidoosterfees, Cape Town, South Africa

100, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Universal Suffering, War Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Femininity, curated by Eva Roer, Germany

SAADA Antique Fair, Pier Rabe Antiques, Franschhoek, South Africa

Hiernamaals/Hereafter, Slee Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Binnehemels, group show, Red, Black & White, Stellenbosch, South Africa

2012

Small Works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

A Summer of Sculpture, with Everard Read, Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa

2009 

The Great South African Nude, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

Sex, Power, Money, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2008 

Confluence, a two-woman exhibition between China & South Africa, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Fair Utrecht, Netherlands

2006

Small works, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

Shany van den Berg / Strijdom van der Merwe, Grande Provence Gallery, Franschhoek, South Africa

2005

Three , Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2000-2

Shany van den Berg/Alex Hamilton, Bang the Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2000 

A Celebration of Art & Technology, group show in aid of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, 

sponsored by Hewlett Packard

 

COMPETITIONS & PROJECTS

2022

Woordfees / Stellenbosch,  SA in conjunction with Stauss & Co, South Africa  

2021  

Sanlam Portrait Award Finalist: Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2019

Sanlam Portrait Top 40 Finalist ‘Leah se Water’ Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016  

BP Portrait Award Finalist, National Portrait Gallery, London

BP Travel Award Shortlisted Finalist, Portrait Gallery, London

Art Patron of MAD Leadership Foundation / Collaboration with students, Stellenbosch, 

South Africa

2013  

Fellowship granted by the Ampersand Foundation, New York

2011  

Bright Ideas Ceramic art,  Light from Africa Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2010  

BP Portrait Award Finalist, National Portrait Gallery, London

2 Textile wall artworks, 6m by 2m, made in collaboration with Mogalakwena Art and Craft Centre, Limpopo, for Waterkloof Wine Estate, Somerset West, South Africa

2009

BP Portrait Award Finalist, National Portrait Gallery, London

2008  

Art exchange, Hubei Institute of Art, China

Art Fair Utrecht

2007  

AAF Amsterdam

2005  

Sasol New Signatures Finalist, South Africa

2004

Community Arts Workshop, with Everard Read, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa

2000

Hewlett Packard Project and Auction Johannesburg in support of Nelson Mandela Children's Fund, South Africa

1990  

Corobrik Ceramic Competition Cape Town finalist

 

ART RESIDENCIES

2023

Residency at Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France

2013  

Fellowship, The Ampersand Foundation, New York, USA

2007  

Art Exchange, Hubei Institute of Art, Wuhan, China and Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

1998  

Lauenberg, Germany

 

COLLECTIONS

Works included in private collections in South Africa, London, France, Germany, Luxenburg, Caymen Islands and U.S.A