About
… stay close to nature, to its simplicity, to the small things hardly noticeable …
Rainer Maria Rilke.
BEV DE LANGE
ARTIST | PhD (Art) | MFA
Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), Eastern Cape, South Africa
ARTIST PROFILE
Visual artist and researcher whose practice currently engages with organic material, botanical/biological imagery, transformation, process and the relationship between material processes and artistic meaning. Artworks are represented in galleries and private collections locally, nationally and internationally, including the United States of America, Asia, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Earlier professional training as a general nurse, midwife and medical and surgical nursing practitioner (operating theatre sister) continues to influence and inform my approach to artmaking.
2020 PhD (Art), University of South Africa (UNISA).
2010 Master’s Degree in Fine Art, Nelson Mandela University; graduated Cum Laude.
2005 B.A. Visual Art, University of South Africa (UNISA).
2012 Registered for D.Litt. et Phil. (Art History), UNISA.
— Studied art as a subject through Matric.
RESIDENCIES & INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
2023 Three-month artist residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France; participated in and exhibited in an Open Studios artist event.
2023 Ten artworks completed during the residency were subsequently selected for exhibition at Muisca Art Gallery, Paris.
2011 Two-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France.
2018–2019 Video documenting the practical/creative component of the PhD, Dust from Dust: Microorganisms and Other Tales. An Artist’s Diary, selected for Mixed Realities exhibition at the Albert van Abbehuis Art and Science Salon, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; a still image from the video was used on the exhibition invitation.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS & PROJECTS
2026 Accepted into the Creative Block programme, a Spier Trust initiative.
2026 Participated in a group exhibition at Paper Moth Gallery in Mbombela (Nelspruit).
2026 Participated in Same Size, Same Price, No Signature exhibition at Art on Target.
2026 Participated in The Sacred and the Profane exhibition at the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) Bird Street Art Gallery.
2025 Participated in Modern Miniatures exhhibition at the Art on Target Gallery.
2025 Artworks included in the SANAVA Art Collection exhibition commemorating the 78th anniversary of the Pretoria Association of Visual Arts.
2025 Presented a demonstration/workshop on process-based artmaking at the Gutche Family Investments (GFI) Gallery, Gqeberha.
2025 Joint exhibition, Seeds Are Sown as Time Unravels, with NomThunzi Mashalaba at the GFI Gallery, Gqeberha.
2025 Selected to exhibit in the Curators Choice exhibition at Art on Target Gallery.
2025 Work selected by the NMU Bird Street Gallery for A Moment of Silence Exhibition.
2024 Exhibited in Who’s Who and What’s New at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum (NMMM).
2024 Artworks selected for Curators Choice at Art on Target, Gqeberha.
2024 Exhibited at the 104th ARTEC Annual at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum.
2023 Thirteen works from We Are Leaves … We Are Seeds… exhibited in the Bloom–Broos exhibition alongside Ingrid Uys at the White River Gallery, Mpumalanga.
2023 Commissioned by the Art Bank of South Africa. Created the painting Athanor.
2022 Artworks exhibited in the Mix Tape exhibition at ARTEC, Port Elizabeth.
2022 Delivered a talk on art – and artworks selected for the Medical and Memory exhibition at the ARTEC gallery.
2021–2022 Developed imagery that I named Botanical Translations during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
2021 Exhibited Biome during the Women’s Month exhibition at the GFI Gallery, Port Elizabeth.
2021 Like a Ripening Seed selected for ‘Celebrating Eastern Cape Artists’ at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum.
2014 Work selected for exhibition at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum Biennale, Port Elizabeth.
2014 Artwork selected for Wish You Were Here, a Mandela Development Agency project at the Athenaeum.
2014 Participated in the Sead Collective group exhibition at the Grahamstown (Makhanda) Festival; the works were also subsequently exhibited at ARTEC in Port Elizabeth.