Jo Rogge
Jo Rogge is a nonbinary multidisciplinary artist working across the mediums of painting, printmaking, textiles and sculpture. Their creative work, expressed in a diverse collection of paintings, drawings, prints and objects is informed by an innate curiosity about the world and their reflection on its complexities and conflicts rendered in an intuitive language that attempts to decipher and deliberate over our emotional lives and experiences. Their work is a personal reflection on displacement, family lineage and identity.
These works are also a conduit for probing fundamental beliefs about gender, body politics and sexuality using highly personal recurring symbols. Calling into question the dichotomous notions of gender and challenging heteronormative assumptions, they create a new crucible for queer voices while simultaneously posing uncomfortable questions about difference and belonging.
In addition to their creative practice, having extensive experience in designing publications for various clients, notably UNICEF Namibia and ARASA, roots Rogge’s sensibility in a human rights milieu and manifests in their deliberate and considered placement of sometimes disparate elements to express their concern for the vagaries of our existence. This method of working is offset by their more expressive and emotionally- charged approach in other works. The idea of each work dictates the material used to express it.
They have exhibited widely, locally and internationally. They are the founder of NJE Collective, which seeks to address the under-representation of female and marginalised artists from southern Africa through informal mentorship, and facilitating opportunities and resources. They have participated as a group in numerous art fairs since 2016. Going forward, the collective focuses on the work of queer artists to address the lack of representation of specifically queer narratives in mainstream galleries.
They live and work between Namibia and South Africa.
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