Gerhard Marx was born in 1976. He received his MA in Fine Art from the University of the Witwatersrand in 2004, and he lives and works in Johannesburg. Marx is an artist, theatre director, and filmmaker, and has collaborated with a number of like-minded practitioners including Philip Miller, Maja Marx, Lara Foot Newton, and Handspring Puppet Company. In his own practice as a visual artist, Marx works across a number of media, including drawing and printmaking. He has often explored the idea of the broken and collaged image, and his drawings convey a delicacy and attention to fineness of detail that is belied by the massive sculptural works he has made with William Kentridge. In 2009 he and Kentridge created Firewalker, a large sculpture for the foot of the Queen Elizabeth Bridge in Johannesburg, commissioned by The Trinity Session for an ambitious public art programme in downtown Johannesburg. In the same year Marx worked on a sculpture, now installed on Pigeon Square in Johannesburg, with Maja Marx, and since then has worked with Kentridge on a second sculpture in the spirit of Firewalker, The World on its Hind Legs. Marx’s recent theatre productions have included They Say, written and directed by Marx for the Aardklop National Arts Festival and winner of the Bravo Award for Most Memorable Moment at the festival (2008) and Rewind: A Cantata For Voice, Tape and Testimony, directed by Marx, with an interactive film by Gerhard and Maja Marx and music by Philip Miller. Rewind performed in Brooklyn, New York, at Williams College, Massachusetts (2007) and at The Market Theatre, Johannesburg (2008). Marx has received fellowships from the Ampersand Foundation and the Sundance Film Festival.
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Lessons in looking down, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 The Viewing Room, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010 Cumulus, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
2007 photo-, Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary, Johannesburg
2005 Gerhard Marx, Warren Siebrits Modern and Contemporary, Johannesburg
2003 New Works, Outlet, Pretoria
2000 Drawing and Animation, Open Window Gallery, Pretoria
1999 You are here, Civic Gallery, Johannesburg
Group Exhibitions
2013 My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
2013 Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive , South African Pavilion, 55th la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2011 The Underground, the Surface and the Edges, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town
2011 Life of Bone, Origins Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006 Figuring Faith Curated by Fiona Rankin Smith, Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg and
Grahamstown National Arts Festival
2004 Ten Years of Democracy Exhibition, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudsthoorn, South Africa
Awards and Merits
2007 Sundance Fellowship, Sundance Film Festival Screen Writers Laboratory, Utah, USA
2004 Ampersand Fellowship, New York
Selected Articles and Reviews
2013 Brent Meersman, An Imperfect Past and Its Impact on the Present, Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg,
South Africa
2013 Chris Thurman, Marx’s Maps Connect the Sky to Subterranean in Unexpected Ways, Business Day Live, South Africa
2011 GavinYounge, Cumulus Review, Design Magazine, Number 19
*2011*Leora Maltz-Leca, Cumulus, Artforum, South Africa
2011 Renee Holleman, Cumulus, Artthrob, South Africa
2011 Bettie Lambrecth
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