https://www.instagram.com/gggratrix
Cape Town-based Georgina Gratrix is one of the most exciting and innovative South African contemporary art artists. Part mocking, part criticism, part play, Gratrix’s work offers an inverted visual take on the world. Instilled with her youthful energy and personal experience, her work is refreshing, entertaining and complex.
Gratrix’s provocative works are heavily imbued with a fun aesthetic and a sense of deprecating laughter. Extending from the grandeur and sacrosanct icons of traditional art canons, contemporary pop culture and the artist herself, no social hierarchies are absolved as subjects. A thick, almost obscenely excessive application of oil paint forms the layers of make-up and decoration on her subjects’ faces and bodies. Portraiture is a favourite genre, explored primarily in painting but also in drawing, printmaking, collage and assemblage.
With numerous successful group and solo exhibitions locally and internationally, Gratrix continues to garner impressive recognition.
Through collaborations with Zhané Warren since 2008, Gratrix has developed several engaging original prints in monotype (unique prints/one-off) etching, woodcut and screen-print. As a painter, she brings a personal and gestural energy to the printmaking process. Her hand-printed original prints have been featured in several print-related exhibitions curated by Zhané Warren. These are Recent (2014) large-scale monotypes made in 2014, group exhibitions amongst others, Registration (2009), Monotype (2010), Five Years in Print (2013), Off the Press | New Editions & Monotypes (2013) and Host (2015). She has also been featured at the studio’s booths at the Cape Town Art Fair, Joburg Art Fair and Turbine Art Fair. In November 2016, Warren Editions showcased Gratrix’s The Flâneur and Bad Feminist at the Editions / Artists’ Book Fair (E/AB Fair) in New York. The E/AB Fair has been New York’s premier showcase for discovering new and contemporary prints, multiples and artists’ books. Renowned for cultivating an international community of publishers, the E/AB Fair provides a platform for their growth in the art market.
Miss Lux
2012
Spitbite aquatint with Gampi chine collé on Zerkall 250gsm
Edition of 25
Paper dimension: 67 x 54 cm
Image dimension: 49,5 x 39,5 cm
Price R6730 (excl. VAT)
The Exes
2012
Five colour aquatint, spitbite aquatint and burnishing on Zerkall 250gsm
Edition of 25
Paper dimension: 54 x 65,8 cm
Image dimension: 39,5 x 49,5 cm
Price R6730 (excl. VAT)