Bevan de Wet

Bevan de Wet (b.1985) is an artist and printmaker based in Johannesburg. He graduated with a BFA with distinction from Rhodes University in 2008. From 2011-2016, 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 called Eleven Editions, where he also collaborates with other 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 centres around our increased sense of alienation from the natural environment and the spaces we inhabit, drawing attention to the fragmented nature of our current engagement with the world.

Concerns around displacement and belonging have lead to a fascination with boundaries, both biological and geographical, the way they are never fixed, but rather permeable and shifting. De Wet explores the tensions between the organic and the constructed world, from surface and the subdermal network to the structures imposed on the landscape. He works primarily with paper, engaging its materiality and pushing the boundaries of the surface. Works are realised through etching, relief printing, papermaking, drawing and installation.

De Wet has exhibited extensively, both locally and internationally, held 5 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 included in Origins & Trajectories (Paris, 2016); the International Printmaking Alliance Exhibition (China 2016-17) amongst others. He has exhibited numerously on the Turbine Art Fair, FNB Joburg Art Fair, and the CT Art Fair. The artist’s work is held in a number of private and public collections including The Wits Art Museum, Nirox Foundation, the South African Embassy in Washington DC, Art Bank Collection South Africa, MOAD Museum of African Design, Exxaro, and the Ahmanson Foundation in Los Angeles.

De Wet’s 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 an ImpAct Award for Visual Art from the Arts and Culture Trust 2014. De Wet attended the Cill Rialaig Artists Residency in Ireland 2017. 

Awards & Affiliations

2014 ABSA L’Atelier Merit Award Winner, Sylt Foundation Residency 2015 (Germany) 

2014 ImpACT Award for Young Professionals, Visual Arts Winner, Arts and Culture Trust (JHB)

2013 Ampersand Foundation Fellowship & Residency (New York)

2012 Thami Mnyele Art on Paper Merit Award (JHB)

Residencies

2017 Cill Rialaig Arts Residency (Ireland)

2015 Sylt Foundation Residency (Germany)

2014 Bag Factory Artist Residency (Johannesburg)

2013 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).