Dan HALTER
(Zimbabwe, 1977)
Dan Halter was born in Zimbabwe in 1977 and currently lives in South Africa. In 2001 he graduated from the University of Cape Town. His artistic research explores geographical boundaries, migrational phenomenons, and other political and social issues, through a keen use of craft methods, such as weaving, and the inclusion in his work of everyday materials, such as woven plastic bags from China.
His solo exhibitions include Take Me to Your Leader, 2006 (João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town), Mafuta Farm 2017 (Dillon + Lee, New York), Zimbabwean Traffic, 2017 (Skövde Konstmuseet, Skövde, Sweden), and Patience Can Cook a Stone, 2018 (Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town). He has been an artist in residence in Zürich, Cologne, Turin, Rio de Janeiro, and Dufftown in Scotland.
Halter's work can be found in many public collections, including Iziko South African National Gallery, UNISA (University of South Africa), University of Cape Town, Collection Leridon, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Southern African Collection for Contemporary Art, Pigozzi Collection, Artphilein, Rennie Collection, Tiroche Deleon Collection, Southern African Collection for Contemporary Art, Reydan Weiss Collection, Scheryn Art Collection, Round About Collection, National Gallery of Victoria, Tate Modern, Schulting Art
Collection, Perez Art Museum, Stichting Droom en Daad.
"My artistic practice is informed by my position as a Zimbabwean currently living in South Africa. My work deals with my sense of dislocated national identity, human migration and the dark humour of present realities in Southern Africa. This is largely a backlash due to a history of oppression that continues to manifest today. I use ubiquitous materials and engage with local popular visual strategies as a form of expression. My work often exploits the language of craft and curio in a conceptual art context. I explore various techniques of fabrication, and this frequently involves collaboration. I use materials that resonate with meaning and there is a narrative element to my art. I engage with history from a contemporary perspective and with the technology of today.
I have worked with Bienco Ikete, a refugee from the DRC for a number of years. Together we have organised a way of weaving paper artworks"
- Dan Halter
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021-2022
Get Out of Jail Free, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
2021
Money Loves Money, Osart Gallery, Milan
2019
Plenty sits Still, Hunger is a Wanderer, Thisisnofantasy, Melbourne
Cross the River in a Crowd, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
2018
Please Call Me, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Patience Can Cook a Stone, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
2017
Zimbabwean Traffic, Skövde Konstmuseet, Skövde, Sweden
Mafuta Farm, Dillon + Lee, New York
2015
The Original is Unfaithful to The Translation, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
2013
DanHalter – HeartlanD, Special Project, Joburg Art Fair
2012
The Truth Lies Here, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
2011
Dan Halter / Mappa Del Mondo, NKV (Nassauischer Kunstverein Weisbaden), Weisbaden, Germany
2010
Double Entry, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Shifting The Goalposts, (in collaboration with Adam Davies) Son Gallery, London
Shifting The Goalposts, (in collaboration with Adam Davies) GoetheOnMain, Johannesburg
2008
Never say Never, Derbylius Gallery, Milan, Italy
2006
Take Me To Your Leader, João Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023-2024
To Weave the Sky: Textile Abstractions from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, El Espacio 23, Miami, Florida
Africa Supernova. Contemporary African painting collection by Carla and Pieter Schulting, Amersfoort, Netherlands
2022
2021
This is not Africa – Unlearn what you have learned, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark
Leek Phone ™* presents: Contemporary Art Fair / Colonial Exhibition, Halle 3, Tor 6 – 11 Stockmeyerstraße 41– 43 20457 Hamburg
Spier Light Art, Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch
2020
Dance of Urgency, Het HEM, Netherlands
Anuário 2019, Palácio das Artes Porto, Portugal
Histories of Dance, Museu de Arte de Sāo Paulo, Brazil
2019
Mapping Worlds: Selected Works from the Scheryn Art Collection, Norval Foundation, Cape Town
LagosPhoto Festival, Lagos
No Photos on the Dance Floor! Berlin 1989 – Today, C/O Berlin Foundation
Rocks, The Gallery 44 Stanley, Johannesburg
Lost Lover, RAMPA, Porto, Portugal
Dance of Urgency, Q21 Museums Quartier, Vienna
Growbox Art Project, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town
2018
Hacer Noché, Santo Domingo, Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico
Forward? Forward! Forward… Stellenbosch University Museum
Baggage Claims, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina
2017
You & 1, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town
Everyday Anomaly, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Baggage Claims, Orlando Museum of Art
PLAY/III Video and Performance Festival, Galerie Ampersand, Cologne
Two To Tango, Sperling Gallery, Münich
Chinafrika. under construction, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig
Low Res: Spatial Politics in the Cloud, NARS Foundation, Brooklyn
2016
HISTORICODE: Scarcity and Supply, The 3rd Nanjing International Art Festival
Negative Space, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
After the Thrill is Gone, Western Michigan University
100 Geographies, US Museum, Stellenbosch
Dear Europa.. Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Energy Flash – The Rave Movement, M HKA (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen)
Mir ist das Leben lieber, Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst
Artists’ Books and Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Winter
2015
Collected Works, Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver
Nano, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town
Brave New World… 20 Years of Democracy, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Foreign Bodies, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London
Johannesburg Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale fringe
Migrations, National College of Art and Design, Dublin, also travelling to Australia and America
Thinking, Feeling, Head, Heart, New Church Museum, Cape Town
2014
Unerasable Memories: A Historic Look at the Videobrasil Collection Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo, Brazil
No Fixed Abode, New Church Museum, Cape Town
Vegetation as a Political Agent, Parco Arte Vivente (PAV) Turin, Italy
Uncertain Terms, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Ngezinyawo – Migrant Journeys, Wits Arts Museum, Johannesburg
Paperwork, SMAC Art Gallery, Stellenbosch
2013
Beitbridge Moonwalk, Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan
Weather Report – Weerberig, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom
‘Who is afraid of the public?’ ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Arts), London
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, National Museum of African Art, Washington DC
Digi Re-engineering, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria
Making Way, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg
2012
Positive Tension, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Under Constant Threat, Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto Alegre, Brazil
4th Protest Arts International Festival (PAIF), Harare, Zimbabwe
Making Way, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown
Beyond Apartheid: sex, race, and politics in contemporary Africa, Galeria Lunara, Porto Alegre, Brazil
2011
17th VideoBrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
7th International Triennial of Contemporary Textile Arts, Tournai, Belgium
O2 VideoAct (International Video Art Biennial), Hotel Amister Barcelona, Spain
10 Years On, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town
Propaganda by Monuments, Cairo, Egypt
2010
LADUMA! Rotterdam, Holland
Dak’art, 9th Biennial of Contemporary African Art, Dakar, Senegal
US, South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Harare International Art Fair (HIFA), Zimbabwe National Gallery
Spier Contemporary, City Hall, Cape Town
/ + \ = X, Serialworks, Cape Town
Mooimarkshow III, Galerie Weisser Elefant, Berlin, Germany
2009
Project 35, NADA Miami Art Fair
Holiday, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
ECC25 (End Conscription Campaign 25 years), Spier Wine Estate Stellenbosch
US, Johannesburg Art Gallery
WORD! Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town
Encounters, South African International Documentary Festival
10th Havana Biennial, Cuba
Objects of a Revolution, Dominque Fiat Gallery, Paris, France
2008
Big Wednesday, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
3rd Guangzhou Triennial, Guangzhou, China
Monologs, Rome, Italy and at the Gallería Animal in Santiago, Chile
MTN New Contemporaries, University of Johannesburg
Forty Years of Friendship: The Friends of The National Gallery: 1968-2008, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Power Play, Goodman Gallery Cape Town
Prints + Editions, Whatiftheworld / Gallery, Cape Town
Studio 2666: Ons Skrik vir Niks, Blank Projects, Cape Town
2007
Spier Contemporary, Spier Wine Estate Stellenbosch
16th VideoBrasil, São Paulo, Brazil
The Inchoate Idiosynchratic Descent into Nihlism, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town
The 2nd Cape Town Biennale, Blank Projects, Cape Town
3C Committee and Critics Choice, Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town
Hell Yeah, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cape Town
Zeitgenössiche Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (NBK), Berlin, Germany
2006
Second to None, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
The Cape Town Biennale, Blank Projects, Cape Town
The Last Braai 666, in collaboration with Christian Nerf and Ed Young, L/B’s Lounge, Cape Town
Next Wave Festival, Melbourne, Australia
2005
Black and White Poster Project, Dirt Contemporary, Cape Town
2004
Contra Mundi, Association for Visual Arts (AVA), Cape Town
Exchange Views on…/ Echange vues sur… Espace Croix-Baragnon, France and Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town
2003
Picnic, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town
2001
YDETAG, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Emergency, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town