Bevan de Wet

Bevan de Wet (b. 1985) is an artist and printmaker based in Johannesburg. He graduated with a BFA with a distinction from Rhodes University in 2008. From 2011 to 2016, de Wet worked at the Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg as a professional print technician, collaborator, and academic facilitator. In 2016, he founded his own print studio, Eleven Editions, where he collaborates with artists and publishes various projects.

De Wet regularly works with Phumani Archive Mill, a paper-making research unit at the University of Johannesburg, where he produces his handmade paper work. His practice centers around our increase sense of alienation from the natural environment and the spaces we inhabit, highlighting the fragmented nature of our current engagement with the world. Concerns around displacement and belonging have led to a fascination with boundaries, both biological and geographical, which are never fixed but rather permeable and shifting. De Wet explores tensions between the organic and constructed world, engaging primarily with paper to push the boundaries of the surface through etching, relief printing, paper-making, drawing, and installation.

De Wet has exhibited extensively both locally and internationally, holding five solo exhibitions including The Other Landscape (Lizamore Gallery, 2019), Drawing on Entropy (Hazard Gallery, 2018), New Forms: A Study of Broken Parallels (Candice Berman Gallery, 2017) and was also included in Origins & Trajectories (Paris, 2016), the International Printmaking Alliance Exhibition (China 2016-17) amongst others. He has exhibited numerously in the Turbine Art Fair, FNB Joburg Art Fair and the Cape Town Art Fair. His work is included in collections such as the Wits Art Museum, Nirox Foundation, South African Embassy in Washington DC, and the Ahmanson Foundation in Los Angeles.

His awards include the Ampersand Foundation Fellowship (New York residency, 2013), the Thami Mnyele Art on Paper Award (2013), the ABSA L'Atelier Merit Award (2014, Sylt Foundation residency, Germany), and the ImpAct Award for Visual Art from the Arts and Culture Trust (2014). He also attended the Cill Rialaig Artists Residency in Ireland (2017).

Awards & Affiliations

• 2014 - L’Atelier Merit Award Winner
• 2015 - Sylt Foundation Residency (Germany)
• 2014 - ImpACT Award for Young Professionals
• Visual Arts Winner, Arts and Culture Trust (JHB)
• Ampersand Foundation Fellowship & Residency (New York)
• 2012 Thami Mnyela Art on Paper Merit Award (JHB)

Residencies

• Cill Rialaig Art Residency (Ireland)
• Sylt Foundation Residency (Germany)
• Bag Factory Artist Residency (Johannesburg)
• Bag Factory Artist Residency (Johannesburg)
• Ampersand Fellowship Residency (New York)

Select solo Exhibitions

• 2019 - The Other Landscape, Lizamore & Associates Gallery (JHB)
• 2018 - Drawing on Entropy, Hazard Gallery (JHB)
• 2017 - New Forms: A Study of Broken Parallels, Candice Berman Gallery (JHB)
• 2014 - Vestige, NIROX Projects (JHB)
• 2013 - Masquerade, Montserrat College of Art (Massachusetts, USA)

Collections

• Wits Art Museum (JHB)
• Nirox Foundation (JHB)
• National Art Bank (SA)
• Arts & Culture Trust (SA)
• EXXARO (SA)
• South African Embassy (Washington DC)
• Ahmanson Foundation (LA)
• Museum of African Design (MOAD, JHB)