contemporary
artist
spatial-weaver | material painter | care as resistance
Biography
Bev Butkow (b. Johannesburg, 1967) is an emerging South Africa artist working with spatial-weaving, material-painting and care as resistance. She transforms surplus and discarded materials into woven spatial-constructions that resist fixed form. Cycles of unravelling and remaking echo women’s overlooked labour and resilience. Rooted in Johannesburg, her collaborative process repositions making as collective embodied knowledge and as a catalyst for imagining new social and spatial futures.
As University of Johannesburg’s 2025 Artist in Residence, Butkow is transforming the brutalist Theatre Foyer with a woven installation that softens the institutional architecture. Her work is currently featured in the 18th International Triennial of Tapestry, Poland (2025–26), the Iziko South African National Gallery (2025-2026) and Museu da Água, Lisbon. She has exhibited, inter alia, at the Dakar Biennale (2022), Origins Centre (Wits University 2023, 2021), Yi Tai Projects at Art Central Hong Kong (2023), and 1-54 London (2019, 2024, 2025).
Butkow earned a Master of Fine Arts (2022) and an Honours in History of Art (2017), both with distinction, from the University of Witwatersrand.
Download Bio
Artist Statement
My practice explores weaving, painting and assemblage as unruly, speculative processes of unmaking and remaking. Rooted in the intuitive and the tactile, it unfolds through bodily experiments with foraged and surplus materials – threads, textiles, plastic, detritus – that carry their own histories of use, neglect and care.
For me, weaving is not simply a technique but a philosophy: a way of living and thinking that honours slowness, repetition, ritual and the transformative potential of what’s been overlooked. Each work becomes a site of negotiation between form and formlessness, holding and release, structure and collapse.
The embodied rhythms of caregiving and mothering that are encapsulated by acts of nurturing and expanding, underpin my process, allowing my works to unravel and remake material worlds. Makeshift constructions transgress disciplinary boundaries: painting becomes textile, textile becomes installation, and rooms become looms. These large-scale spatial forms hover on the edge of disintegration, reflecting both the fragility and resilience of my home city, Johannesburg.
At the heart of my practice is a belief in the radical, generative power of care. Making becomes an act of reconstitution. A way to stitch together brokenness, trace and retrace connections, and imagine new relational models grounded in softness, resilience and deep listening. These collective models draw on deep feminine knowledge, valuing relationality, ritual, community, intuition, spirituality and being in the body. Collaboration is vital: each encounter with artists, writers or communities generates new entangled forms of knowledge.
Through immersive, sensory installations, I invite audiences to feel their way into other ways of knowing – those that move beneath the surface of reason, embracing ambiguity, slippage and interdependence.
In a world unravelling, I make to remember how to hold things together – differently.
Download Artist statement
CV
Solo exhibitions
2023
re-weaving m/other, Origins Centre, Wits University, Johannesburg
2021
embodied-enTANglements/enTANgled-embodiments, MFA show, Origins Centre, Wits University, Johannesburg
2015
m/other, Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg
Biennials/triennals
2025-2026
18th International Triennial of Textile, Centralne Muzeum Wlokiennictwa w Lodzi, Poland (forthcoming)
2022
14th Dakar Biennial International exhibition, ‘Ndaffa / Forging / Out of the Fire, Dakar, Senegal, curated by Dr El Hadji Malick Ndiaye
2022
Contextile Bienal TextileTALKS, Guimaräes, Portugal, curated by Lala de Dios
2021
Every Woman Biennial, London
2021
Interwoven Worlds, ACASA Triennial, online
2020
IX Bienal World Textile Art-Chile, online
Selected curated exhibitions
2025-2026
Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2025
Beyond Boundaries – A Collective Odyssey, Museu da Água, Lisbon
2025
Fractured Foundations: Reimagining Resilience, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2025
1-54 London
2024
SAFCCA Seed III, Johannesburg
2024
Soft Power, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2024
Decade, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2024
1-54 London
2023
Paragone: What’s with mediums today? International exhibition, EPAL Museu da Agua, Lisbon
2023
Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects, Art Central Hong Kong
2023
Soft Power, 3person show, Addis Fine Art Project Space with Guns & Rain, London
2022
Rich in Fibre, KKNK National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn
2022
Tomorrows/Today, Investec Cape Town Art Fair
2021
Bag Factory 30 Years: So Far, The Future, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg
2021
Virtual Hugs, Point of Order, Wits School of Arts, Johannesburg
2020
Tactile Visions–Woven, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, online
2018
The Art of Lithography: a collaborative expression of LL Editions, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg
2018
Sister Sister, National Arts Festival, Makhanda
2016
District Six Museum 50th Commemorative Print Exchange Portfolio Project, Cape Town
2015
Fresh Produce, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
– Group exhibitions at a variety of project spaces in Johannesburg, including U7 (Wits), Point of Order (Wits), Nirox Project Space, P72 Project Space, Bag Factory Artist Studios, National Arts Festival (Makhanda), District Six Museum.
– Art fairs include Art Central Hong Kong, Joburg Art Fair, Cape Towen Art Fair, Latitudes Art Fair, AKAA Paris.
– Exhibitions in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizaebth, Oudtshoorn, London, Paris, Lisbon, Hong Kong, Senegal, Portugal and New York.
Formal education
2024
Preparing for Doctoral study in the Arts, cum laude, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits), under supervisor Dr Renzo Filinich Orozco
2018–2022
Master of Fine Arts, cum laude, Wits, under supervisor Dr Jessica Webster
2016–2017
Honours in Art History, cum laude, Wits, under supervisors Dr Nicole Cloete and Dr Stacey Vorster
1985–1991
B.Com, B.Acc, CA(SA), H.Dip.Tax, Wits
Gallery representation
n/a
Guns & Rain: Contemporary African Art
Interventions
2025
BodyWeaving, embodied movement intervention, Johannesburg (forthcoming)
2024
collaborative body-weave, experimental intervention, open studio at Contra.Joburg
2019
weaving workshop, Berman project space, Johannesburg
Visiting lecturer, artist talks and conferences
2025
Artists’ Masterclass – The Art of the Biography and Artist Statement, Johannesburg
2024
Visiting lecturer and installation/weaving workshop, Norwich University of the Arts, United Kingdom
2023
thread, plastic, and murmurating masses, creative gatherings on ‘women’s work as artistic practice’, Origins Centre, Wits
2023
10 rules for living a creative life (and remaining relevant), Art School Africa
2021
Virtual Hugs 2021: Creating from Precarious Edges, Wits School of Arts
2019
embodied-entanglements/entangled-embodiments, Material Narratives: Representations of public and private histories in cloth, University of Johannesburg
Wits School of Arts Postgraduate Research Showcase, Wits
2019
Wits School of Arts Postgraduate Research Showcase, Wits
2018
Tobetsa: a huddling, Wits
2016
Courting transformation: Textiles and the politics of representation in the Constitutional Court Art Collection, South African Research Chair in Southern African Art and Visual Culture conference, University of Johannesburg
2016
Patchwork Attempts at Transformation: Re-stitching Six Textiles, UNISA School of Arts conference
Residencies & workshops
2025
Entabeni Farms, Knysna, South Africa, facilitated by SAFFCA
2024
Painting Residency, First Floor Gallery Harare, Zimbabwe
2023, 2022
Sculpture Residency, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
2021
BodyIQ2021 Symposium, Berlin (online)
2020
Nirox Foundation & Sculpture Park Writing Residency, Cradle of Mankind, South Africa
2019
Narrative Writing for the Humanities, Wits
2019
African Studies Journal Writing Residency
2019
L’Air residency, Paris
Awards, grants & selections
2025
University of Johannesburg 2025 Artist in Residence 2025
2024
Arts to Hearts Magazine anthology
2023
National Arts Council PESP grant
2021
Wits School of Art RINC
2021
Finalist, Nature/Nurture, Brooklyn, USA
2020
Scholarship recipient, Andrew W Mellon: Governing Intimacies (GI) Project
2018
Africa’s top 20 new and exciting talent, Joburg Art Fair
2018
Post-Graduate Merit award, Wits (turned down in favour of those with greater financial need)
2016
Johannesburg Council Chamber Totem Public Art Competition
2016
Post-Its, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, Supported by Sokol Foundation, Hayman Foundation, University of California at San Diego, Los Angeles, and Davis
2015
Merit Award, SA Taxi Foundation Art Award
2015
Fresh Produce, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2018
Post-Graduate Merit award, Wits (turned down in favour of those with greater financial need)
2015
Winner, Assemblage Postcard Project
Critical writing around my practice
2024
Dr Anthea Buys – ‘Women’s work’, freedom and the labour of care
https://womencreativesgathering.webflow.io/texts
2024
Prof Sharlene Khan – Working Against the Grain: Bev Butkow’s Dangerous Liaisons
https://womencreativesgathering.webflow.io/texts
2024
Candice Allison – If these weaves could talk
https://womencreativesgathering.webflow.io/texts
2024
Dr Laura de Harde – Interwoven Voices: Artist-Women in Conversation
https://womencreativesgathering.webflow.io/texts
2023
Mary Corrigall, Latitudes online – Tracing the threads of abstraction
https://editorial.latitudes.online/blog/posts/tracing-the-threads-of-abstraction/
2023
David Mann, Daily Maverick – Reflections: The woven connections in Bev Butkow’s tactile new
Installation
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-04-20-reflections-the-woven-connections-in-bev-butkows-tactile-new-installation/
2023
Hanna Resnick, Jewish Report – Tapestry of care takes artist back to her origins
https://newsletter.sajr.co.za/t/j-l-slridhy-dihlididjr-tl/
2023
Kayra Oguz – Making and Mothering: Textile Constructions of Bev Butkow
2022
2021
Fadzai Muchemwa – Bev Butkow’s Woven Paintings and the Testimony of Things
Selected press and media
2024
Arts to Hearts Magazine anthology
2023
Creative Feel – Bev Butkow re-weaves Networks of Care in her latest exhibition
https://creativefeel.co.za/tag/bev-butkow-mixed-media/
2023
Elle Hong Kong – Interview with artist Bev Butkow
https://www.elle.com.hk/life/blooming-art
2023
SABC 3 TV Morning Live – Bev Butkow’s solo exhibition explores fierceness, boldness of women
2023
Ekhaya Jikelele TV channel – interview
2022
2019
MoMAA – The meteoric rise of African art
https://momaa.org/the-meteoric-rise-of-african-art/
2017
SLOW Magazine – Depicting Society in Nail Varnish
2016
Artscope Magazine – South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Artists – Galvanized for Change
2016
Skyways Magazine – A new perspexive
2015
Saturday Star – Artist puts herself in the driver’s seat to help girl school-leavers get on their feet
2015
SA Jewish Report – Butkow fight scourge of ‘exclusion’ through her work
2015
Kaya FM, Interview with Bob Mabena and Khuli Roberts
2015
103HopeFm Radio, Interview
2015
SABC2 TV News Morning Live – Interview, Bev Butkow on SA Taxi Award
My writing & publications
2022
Image & Text. embodied-enTAnglements/enTAngled-embodiments
performaTIVe encounters with materials, creative proceSS and the artist-woman’s body. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2617-3255/2022/n36a25
2022
MFA thesis, Wits. embodied-enTANglements/enTANgled-embodiments
performaTIVe encounters with materials, creative proceSS and the artist-woman’s body
Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts collection, Wits Art Museum (WAM)
2020
[…] Ellipses Journal for Creative Research. 2020 Special edition “Embodied Methodologies, Creative Research in the Global South”.
Link here: embodied-entanglements-entangled-embodiments
2017
Honours in Art History research project, Wits. un-becoming as a means of unravelling my good-girl-ness
Informal learning
2023 ongoing
TAAS global residency
2023 ongoing
VVrkshop, Professional practices community, founded and led by Paddy Johnson
2018 ongoing
Ongoing mentorships with Frances Goodman MAFA Goldsmiths College, University of London
Dr Nina Barnett, MAFA University of Illinois, Chicago, PhD University of Johannesburg
Dr Laura de Harde, PhD, Wits University
2024
Entangling Worlds – Approaches on Ecofeminism, Cohabitation and Queer Ecology, Post-Graduate Programme in Curating, Zurich University of the Arts, online
2024
Meaningful Marks: Contemporary Painting Workshop with Erlin Geffrard, The Alternative Art School (TAAS), online
2023
Papermaking workshop, Deckle Edge, Cape Town
2023
Canopy, with RAQS Media Collective, TAAS, online
2022
The paradox of art and labour, Berlin Institute of Art, online
2022
Embodiment as Ecology, with Nico Athene
2020
Drawing meditation with Katherine Bull
2019
Narrative Writing, under Dr Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, Wits
2019
Research trip, TextileLab Tilburg, Netherlands
2015–2018
Mentorships with Usha Seejarim, MAFA, Wits, Kim Lieberman, MAFA, Wits
2015
Paper making at Phumani Paper Archive Mill, University of Johannesburg
Film pieces
2023
re-weaving m/other, Origins Centre, Wits
2023
Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects, Art Central Hong Kong
2022
ContextileTALKS 2022
2021
embodied-enTAnglements/enTAngled-embodiments, MFA show
2021
Interview with curator Gcotyelwa Mashiqa, ACASA Triennial 2021
2020
embodied-entanglements, Tactile Visions-Woven
2020
Artist interviews with Prof Sharlene Kahn, Tactile Visions – Woven, Art on our mind
Community involvement
2025
ARTISTS’ MASTERCLASS, The ART of the Biography and Artist Statement, free workshop for emerging artists, Johannesburg
Ongoing
Established and ongoing support for a rural children’s library in Ponelopele in Botlokwa, Limpopo
2023
Convened a series of creative gatherings/talk around the theme of ‘women’s work as artistic practice’ at Origins Centre, Wits, with curator Candice Allison. 25 artist-women and artist-mothers from South Africa and the global South participated in gatherings that were provocative, generative, & vulnerable
2013–2021
Board, Management Committee member for 11 schools in Johannesburg
2015–2021
Chair, IT Steering Committee for 11 schools in Johannesburg
2020
Artmask for Kindness project
2017–2023
Bag Factory Artists Studios resident artist
2018–2019
Bag Factory Project Selection Committee
2018
Mentor to David Koloane Painting Award winners
2018
Collaboration – Save the Children South Africa
2015
Assemblage Artists Studios resident artist
Download cv
