Karin Preller

Karin Preller lives and works in Johannesburg. After a relatively brief career in law, she completed a BA(FA) (cum laude) at Unisa and an MA(FA) (cum laude) at the University of the Witwatersrand, lecturing in Art History at UNISA and other tertiary institutions. She completed her PhD in Art and Design at the University of Johannesburg in June 2024.

Preller’s paintings are characterized by their reflection of the haunting and strange at the heart of the banal, in snapshots and still lives. Honed into a distinctive artistic idiom, her paintings reference photographically frozen moments which, by the time and concentration expended on their labored surfaces, uncover embedded layers of remembrance and amnesia. They chronicle ordinary lived stories, paused and rewound: interrupted narratives, lost stories.

Solo exhibitions include Family Album at ABSA gallery in 2001 Snapshots at GordartGallery in 2007; Aperture at Fried Contemporary in 2008; Stills at Artspace (now Lizamore and Associates) in 2009; City and Suburban at the Standard Bank Gallery in 2010; Just above the mantelpiece at Artspace in 2013; Stilled lives at Lizamore and Associates in 2015; Stilled lives II at the Association of Arts in 2018; Almost no memory at Lizamore and Associates in 2020; Beyond memory at the 2022 KKNK, and Alles in foto’s at Woordfees, Stellenbosch, 2024.

Preller was the recipient of the 2022 KKNK KANNA award and was nominated for a KykNET Fiēsta for her exhibition Beyond Memory. Her work is included in the collections of The Johannesburg Art Gallery, Sasol, ABSA, Unisa, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, The Public Protector, ATKV, the Pretoria Art Museum and the Standard Bank, amongst others.