Pierre Fouché

Pierre Fouché introduces himself as a lacemaker. This designation highlights his interest in the techniques, materials, histories, and social relevance of textiles. His respect for technique, tradition, and innovation has earned Fouché his place within the craft establishment as an internationally respected practitioner and teacher of contemporary bobbin lace. His penchant for arcane media and aesthetics has led his practice to include macramé, drawn thread embroidery, encaustic painting, and pinhole photography, as well as traditional painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Thematically, his work focuses on portraiture and the gaze, photography and representation, appropriation, and web-media cultures, as well as some forays into overt queer politics. Often informed by world art history, his desire to understand the machinery of contemporary visual cultures tends toward the Romantic. His consistent marriage of iconography with craftsmanship also contributes to this reading.

Fouché achieved his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Stellenbosch in 2006. Notable group exhibitions include Lace/not lace at the Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey; Crafted: Objects in flux at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (2018), Women’s work at the Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), as well as the touring exhibition, Queer Threads: Crafting Identity and Community, first exhibited at the Leslie + Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art, New York (2015).

Pierre's work is represented in the public collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery and the Artphilein Foundation, Switzerland.

Born

Pretoria, South Africa

Lives & Works

Cape Town, South Africa

Acknowledgements & Funders

Pierre is represented by WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, and Nuweland, The Netherlands. His installation at IOTA21 is courtesy of the Spier Art Trust.

Exhibited at

John Curtin Gallery

JCG is one of WA's foremost public art galleries and curates the Curtin University Art Collection, located at Curtin's Bentley campus.

Address

Curtin University, Building 200A, Kent St, Bentley WA 6102