Ben Coutouvidis (1970- )

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Bio

In 1993, Ben Coutouvidis graduated from Rhodes University with a distinction and has exhibited at the
National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, as well as group shows throughout Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Well known for his atmospheric distilling paintings depicting the everyday and mundane; his latest focus has
turned to sculpture incorporating wood and metal. Here, we see the range of the artist as these sculptural
forms work within similar concepts but exist in a blunt presence and focus more on the human body.

In his more recent paintings, Coutouvidis interrogates the relationship between trees and people and how
they have been shaping each other in complex ways over a very long time.

“In its archaic, archetypal way it is also the arc, and I believe that the message of the wooden arc is this: if
people maintain good relations with trees it is this that will help them survive the flood.”

Exhibitions

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022
‘Chimera’, EBONY/CURATED, Franschhoek, South Africa

2019
‘Time and Again’, Prince Albert Gallery, Prince Albert, South Africa

2018
‘Limb’, Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
‘Grounds’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
‘The Crossing’, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
‘Seeing Things’, Knysna Fine Art

2010
‘Play’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2007
‘Encounters’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2005
‘Kalk Bay to Karibib’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2004
‘Great Karoo’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1996
Masters submission exhibition with Hermann Niebuhr, Grahamstown, South Africa

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
‘In [the] Loop’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2017
‘Dream Rift’, Eclectica Design and Art, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Symbiosis’, Eclectica Design and Art, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
‘East/West’, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Spectra’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2014
‘Big Sky’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘From the Heart’, curated by Carol Hodes, Christopher Moller Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Still’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Art on Paper’, Kalk Bay Modern Gallery, Kalk Bay, South Africa

2013
‘Muse’, Casa Labia Gallery, Muizenberg, South Africa
‘Allusions of Abstraction’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2012
‘Sculpture and Ceramics’, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Still Life’, Kalk Bay Modern, Cape Town, South Africa
‘-Scape’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009
‘Art that Inspires’, Johans Borman Fine Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2001-3
Various group exhibitions with Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa

2001
‘Karoo’, with Hermann Niebuhr, Albertyn Stables Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

1997
Two person show with Hermann Niebuhr, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1993
‘The Savage Garden’, Grahamstown National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2015
The Forge, Kalk Bay, South Africa

Works by Ben Coutouvidis (1970- )

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