Penny Siopis (South Africa 1953-)
Scenery of the Four Seasons

glue and ink on canvas

Artwork date: 2009
Exhibited: Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, 'Paintings', 16 April to 30 May 2009.
Exchange Rates*: USD 14 998 – 20 997
GBP 11 243 – 15 740
EURO 12 918 – 18 085

(1)

99.5 x 100 cm; framed size: 103 x 104 x 5.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection of Dr Bruce Hoffman, Cape Town.

Sotheby's, London, Modern and Contemporary African Art, 16 May 2017, Lot 59.

Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town.

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Penny Siopis' first institutional solo exhibition in Spain, Ink, blood and history, will run from 22 October 2026 to 14 March 2027 at Museu Tàpies, in Barcelona.

• Most recently, the artist was included in the exhibition, Motherhood: Paradox and Duality at the Iziko South African National Gallery (25 April 2025 – 23 February 2026), and was among the artists selected for the 12th SITE SANTA FE International: Once Within A Time, curated by Cecilia Alemani in New Mexico (27 June 2026 – 12 January 2026) and was included in Afrosonica - Soundscapes at Geneva’s Museum of Ethnography (16 May 2025 – 4 January 2026).

• Penny Siopis' first retrospective in Europe, For Dear Life. A Retrospective was held at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens in 2024. The exhibition brought together the entirety of her practice while highlighting her mark on a generation of younger artists.

• In 2018, a retrospective of the artist’s film works, This is a True Story: Six Films (1997-2017), was held at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town.

• Further notable international solo shows include, Incarnations (2016) at the Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean in Mauritius, Penny Siopis: Films (2016) at Erg Galerie in Brussels; Obscure White Messenger (2014) at Brandts Museum, Denmark and Three Essays on Shame (2005) at the Freud Museum in London.

• Siopis has participated in numerous group shows at important institutions including, Plural Possibilities and the Female Body (2021) at Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington; Global(e) Resistance (2020) at Centre Pompidou, Paris; I Am … Contemporary Women Artists of Africa (2019) at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC and The art of a nation (2016) at the British Museum, London.

• The artist was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Arts & Culture Trust (ACT) Awards in 2016. She was the first winner of the Volkskas Atelier Award (now Absa L'Atelier Award) in 1986 and won the Vita Art Now award in 1988, 1991, and 1995.

• Prestigious biennales include the Venice Biennale (2013 and 2003), Sydney Biennale (2010), Taipei Biennale (2016), Kwangju Biennale (1995), Havana Biennale (1997 and 1994), Guangzhou Biennale (1997), and the Johannesburg Biennale (1997 and 1995).

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably the Anglo American Corporation, Johannesburg; Chase Manhattan Bank Art Collection, New York; Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg; Durban Art Museum; Durban University of Technology; Gordon Schachat Collection, Johannesburg; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Johannesburg Art Gallery; MTN Art Collection, Johannesburg; Museum of Modern Art, Stockholm; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gqeberha; Peter Stuyvesant Collection, Amsterdam; Javett Art Centre, Pretoria; Rhodes University, Makhanda; Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch; Sasol Art Collection, Johannesburg; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington; SABC Collection, Johannesburg; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; Trust Bank, Johannesburg; The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm; William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley; University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER), Johannesburg and the World Bank, Washington, DC.