JUDY WOODBORNE (1966 -)
Judy Woodborne is a printmaker and
painter. Intrigued by symbolism,
mythologies, literature, and the natural sciences she uses these themes as
inspiration and reference in her works. Woodborne re-thinks printmaking and its
multiple nature, due to editions, by using the varying techniques to create
dimensional paper sculptures, each one unique and not necessarily part of an
edition. The engagement with natural sciences appears in her paintings wherein
the artists is interested in the water not just as element but as a signifier
and representation for other matters of time, death, birth, and re-incarnation.
Born in Cape Town, Woodborne runs her own printmaking
studio. She received her BA Fine Arts from Michaelis School of Fine Art,
UCT, in 1988; a postgraduate advanced diploma with distinction in Printmaking,
UCT, in 1989 and her Master of Fine Arts at Michaelis, in 1993 with
distinction. Recent solo exhibitions include The Anatomy of the World,
in 2018 and Imaginarium, Metamorphosis and Mythology, in 2021
both at Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg.
Group exhibitions include Art on Paper, Kalk Bay Modern and Phantasmagoria:
an exhibition curated
by Woodborne for Riebeek Kasteel Contemporary Summer Exhibition.
She completed residencies at the Grafische
Werkstatt im Traklhaus, (Austria),
visited printmaking workshops in the UK,
stayed at the Cite des Artes in Paris, travelled
through Indo-Tibet, Argentina,
Antarctic Peninsula and completed a residency
at Café Tissardmine in Morroco (2019). She has taken part in collaborative
printmaking portfolios; “Break the
Silence” HIV Campaign, “Art
for Humanity”; “Playing Card
Portfolio” and “Body Politic” portfolio (in collaboration with Prof.
Teresa Cole, Tulane University, USA). She was the ABSA KKKunsfees Festival
Artist in 2007 and published a portfolio of 16 etchings, “The Exquisite Corpse” for the
Kunsfees, 2009. She presented an exhibition titled "Alternative Histories" at the Salzburg Summer Festival in
2015. She was a guest curator for the Woordfees 2018 and 2019 and published a
print portfolio of 14 artists - "Endless Horizon" and "Yesterday, Today &
Tomorrow". She was awarded the prize of S.C. Bes Romania S.R.L. in the
International Contemporary Engraving Biennial, Romania in 2020 for her engraving
"The Weaver". Her 3 dimensional print construction; “Fabula
Mirabilis” was selected for the IPCNY's curated Summer 2020 exhibition
"Give me Space" and she was one of the 10 shortlisted artists for Art
on Paper Contest 2021, Barcelona, Spain. Her engraving “Axis Mundi – World Tree”
was awarded the Celommi Award (special mention) in the Third International
Engraving Biennale held in Teramo, Italy 2023. Her work was selected for the
ROC Print Biennial held in Taiwan 2024. Woodborne has participated in many
International Print Biennales and her work is held in multiple local and
international collections including the IZIKO South African National Gallery in
Cape Town and the Smithsonian Institution (The
National Museum of African Art) in Washington.
