David Brits is an award-winning artist whose experimental métier is dedicated to investigations in public-scale sculpture. Equally energised by material exploration and archival investigation, Brits’ practice spans installation, print-making, drawing, and film.
Major public sculpture commissions include the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, the Spier Arts Trust, and the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Brits is the winner of the Rupert Foundation’s inaugural Social Impact Arts Prize and a recipient of the Barbara Fairhead Award for Social Responsibility in Art. He is a founding member and curator of The Ramp, a multidisciplinary project space in Cape Town.
Recent exhibitions include Time is a Flat Circle, Brits’ solo exhibition curated by Camila Maissune at MovArt Gallery, Lisbon, as well as inclusions in the Matereality group show at the Iziko South African National Gallery, curated by Andrea Lewis, and Fullhouse at blank projects, Cape Town.
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Upcoming:
16 —18 Feb 2024 ︎︎︎Investec Cape Town Art Fair, presented by MovArt Gallery (Luanda/Lisbon).
Current:
Tears Become Rain: Social Impact Arts Prize film launch & immersive exhibition, Latitudes Online ︎︎︎ Click to view.
︎ Public Sculpture
Red Edge (Ouroboros 1.3.1)
2020
Carbon fibre, fibreglass, resin, epoxy, polyethelene foam, quartz crystals, pigment.
311 x 183 x 98cm
Public sculpture installed at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
This sculptural work is the culmination of three years of vigorous material exploration and prototyping using advanced composite materials, such as carbon fibre together with innovative technologies such as 3D design and 3D printing. Such materials are generally used in automotive, marine and aeronautical industries, rendering them non-traditional within the conventions of fine arts. Carbon fibre is a product of recent advances in material technology and when combined with a plastic resin, it becomes eleven times stronger than steel.
The iconic serpentine shapes within Brits’ sculptures are rooted in his family background as his grandfather was a prominent South African snake catcher and reptile expert. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the forms seem to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself.
2020
Carbon fibre, fibreglass, resin, epoxy, polyethelene foam, quartz crystals, pigment.
311 x 183 x 98cm
Public sculpture installed at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
This sculptural work is the culmination of three years of vigorous material exploration and prototyping using advanced composite materials, such as carbon fibre together with innovative technologies such as 3D design and 3D printing. Such materials are generally used in automotive, marine and aeronautical industries, rendering them non-traditional within the conventions of fine arts. Carbon fibre is a product of recent advances in material technology and when combined with a plastic resin, it becomes eleven times stronger than steel.
The iconic serpentine shapes within Brits’ sculptures are rooted in his family background as his grandfather was a prominent South African snake catcher and reptile expert. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the forms seem to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself.
︎ Art Fair
Sculptures and photography works on show as part of
the MovArt Gallery Booth at the 2024 edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair | Booth D3 With David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Keyezua, Mário Macilau.
From the Press Rease:
“ MOVART Gallery is ensuring its agenda on the African art scene by once again taking part in the continent’s most important contemporary art fair, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, which runs from 16 to 18 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Today, it opens the private view for collectors, curators and cultural agents.
In response to this year’s edition theme, ‘Unbound’, circling around the unlimited potential of art to create and challenge realities and between imaginary intersections, materialism and stories, MOVART’S proposal aims to perform as a platform for art practices that provoke imagination while also engage in sociopolitical tensions and break with traditional narratives and social expectations. At this juncture, the works of David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Mário Macilau and Keyezua are brought together.”
the MovArt Gallery Booth at the 2024 edition of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair | Booth D3 With David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Keyezua, Mário Macilau.
From the Press Rease:
“ MOVART Gallery is ensuring its agenda on the African art scene by once again taking part in the continent’s most important contemporary art fair, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, which runs from 16 to 18 February at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Today, it opens the private view for collectors, curators and cultural agents.
In response to this year’s edition theme, ‘Unbound’, circling around the unlimited potential of art to create and challenge realities and between imaginary intersections, materialism and stories, MOVART’S proposal aims to perform as a platform for art practices that provoke imagination while also engage in sociopolitical tensions and break with traditional narratives and social expectations. At this juncture, the works of David Brits, Kay-leigh Fisher, Mário Macilau and Keyezua are brought together.”
︎Group Exhibition
The Hierarchy of Essential Disclosures (Ouroboros 2.2.1) 2019
Edition of 6 + 1 AP
42cm x 188cm x 100cm. Polyethlene Tube, Fibre Glass, Carbon Fibre, Resin, Quartz Crystals, Pigment, Fittings.
On show as part of Synaptic, at THK Gallery, Cape Town.
This work delivers a constantly shifting optical challenge; the patterns nested in the form are in endless flux as the viewer changes vantage points. Its size is imposing, but equally captivating is a perceptible weightlessness. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the form seems to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself.
Edition of 6 + 1 AP
42cm x 188cm x 100cm. Polyethlene Tube, Fibre Glass, Carbon Fibre, Resin, Quartz Crystals, Pigment, Fittings.
On show as part of Synaptic, at THK Gallery, Cape Town.
This work delivers a constantly shifting optical challenge; the patterns nested in the form are in endless flux as the viewer changes vantage points. Its size is imposing, but equally captivating is a perceptible weightlessness. Without a starting or finishing point, and appearing arterial in spite of their solidity, the form seems to writhe and flow in constant movement. The effect is a sense of the wild and methodical working in harmony and unison - a kinetic energy feeding itself.
︎Group Exhibition
Sinusoidal Nebulous VIII 2020
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin.
65 x 56 x 55 cmt, Fittings.
On show as part of ‘Fullhouse’ at blank projects, Cape Town.
From the exhibition text:
“For this year’s winter show, in which blank traditionally uses its platform to highlight the practices of emerging artists and curators, two local project spaces, Fede and Under, have been invited to occupy the gallery.
Fullhouse consists of 1) a library of artworks sampled from practitioners that Fede and Under have worked with over the last year, 2) an empty room in which artworks will be continuously reconfigured and curatorial enquiries will occur.
Carbon Fibre, Aluminum, Resin.
65 x 56 x 55 cmt, Fittings.
On show as part of ‘Fullhouse’ at blank projects, Cape Town.
From the exhibition text:
“For this year’s winter show, in which blank traditionally uses its platform to highlight the practices of emerging artists and curators, two local project spaces, Fede and Under, have been invited to occupy the gallery.
Fullhouse consists of 1) a library of artworks sampled from practitioners that Fede and Under have worked with over the last year, 2) an empty room in which artworks will be continuously reconfigured and curatorial enquiries will occur.
︎Solo Exhibition
Time is a Flat Circle
15 September — 13 November 2022Movart, R. João Penha 14A, 1250-025 Lisboa, Portugal.
Curated by Camila Maissune.
Time is a Flat Circle by South African artist David Brits (b. 1987) comprises a set of photographic works completed between 2010–2012 as well as a series of new carbon fibre sculptures. The exhibition commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a large-scale mechanised tank battle that took place in southern Angola between Angolan, Cuban and South African forces during the years 1987–1988.
Based in an archive of pictures posted on social media groups by South African ex-conscripts, many of whom fought in South Africa’s so-called “Border War” in Namibia and southern Angola from the 1960ies to the 1980ies, David Brits uses mark-making, erasure and scratching, thus embodying the complexities of working through his own masculinity and inherited history in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Brits’ sculptural works take as their principal archetype the “Ouroboros”, a Greek-derived word describing the symbol of a snake devouring its own tail. The artist brings forth an image whose logic refutes itself, and which somehow suspends time.
15 September — 13 November 2022Movart, R. João Penha 14A, 1250-025 Lisboa, Portugal.
Curated by Camila Maissune.
Time is a Flat Circle by South African artist David Brits (b. 1987) comprises a set of photographic works completed between 2010–2012 as well as a series of new carbon fibre sculptures. The exhibition commemorates the 35th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a large-scale mechanised tank battle that took place in southern Angola between Angolan, Cuban and South African forces during the years 1987–1988.
Based in an archive of pictures posted on social media groups by South African ex-conscripts, many of whom fought in South Africa’s so-called “Border War” in Namibia and southern Angola from the 1960ies to the 1980ies, David Brits uses mark-making, erasure and scratching, thus embodying the complexities of working through his own masculinity and inherited history in post-Apartheid South Africa.
Brits’ sculptural works take as their principal archetype the “Ouroboros”, a Greek-derived word describing the symbol of a snake devouring its own tail. The artist brings forth an image whose logic refutes itself, and which somehow suspends time.