(b. 1989, South Africa; Lives and work in Cape Town)
Morné Visagie is an artist, curator, and printmaker. He is currently a PhD candidate at the European Graduate School in Switzerland. Visagie holds both an MFA (2019) and a BA in Fine Art (2011) and trained as a professional printmaker, specialising in traditional printmaking techniques.
In subject, Visagie’s practice turns on the sea as both site and symbol, evocative not only of promise and peril but of sensuality and desire. Drawing on personal and collective histories, the artist pairs memories of his childhood on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, with factual retellings, narratives borrowed from literature and film, and impressions from art and life. His reflections and references, though present, are seldom apparent – subsumed into compositions of restrained abstraction, where colour, materiality, and formal precision are primary.
Amid the artist’s shifting preoccupations, a single incident has remained an indelible constant: the sanctioned murder of two prisoners in the 1730s, killed in punishment for their intimate encounters. “On 19 August 1735,” a historian offers with the sparest of details, “two men had weights tied around their bodies and, somewhere between the Cape and Robben Island, were dropped into the sea to drown.” Unable to escape its imagined images, Visagie meets it time and again at each new chapter of his making.
Where his earlier work proceeded from his biography outwards to consider the motif of water in written and visual representations of the queer body, Visagie’s thematic concerns have since extended to include histories of ocean crossings, finding wider resonances in global narratives of migrancy. Such crossings have been, and continue to be, undertaken by those fleeing war, hardship, and persecution, those who dream of safe haven and hope for a better life.
In subject, Visagie’s practice turns on the sea as both site and symbol, evocative not only of promise and peril but of sensuality and desire. Drawing on personal and collective histories, the artist pairs memories of his childhood on Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, with factual retellings, narratives borrowed from literature and film, and impressions from art and life. His reflections and references, though present, are seldom apparent – subsumed into compositions of restrained abstraction, where colour, materiality, and formal precision are primary.
Amid the artist’s shifting preoccupations, a single incident has remained an indelible constant: the sanctioned murder of two prisoners in the 1730s, killed in punishment for their intimate encounters. “On 19 August 1735,” a historian offers with the sparest of details, “two men had weights tied around their bodies and, somewhere between the Cape and Robben Island, were dropped into the sea to drown.” Unable to escape its imagined images, Visagie meets it time and again at each new chapter of his making.
Where his earlier work proceeded from his biography outwards to consider the motif of water in written and visual representations of the queer body, Visagie’s thematic concerns have since extended to include histories of ocean crossings, finding wider resonances in global narratives of migrancy. Such crossings have been, and continue to be, undertaken by those fleeing war, hardship, and persecution, those who dream of safe haven and hope for a better life.
Education
Current PhD Canditate, European Graduate School, Switzerland
2019 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, UCT, SA
2011 BFA, Michaelis School of Art, UCT, SA
Current PhD Canditate, European Graduate School, Switzerland
2019 MFA, Michaelis School of Art, UCT, SA
2011 BFA, Michaelis School of Art, UCT, SA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2026 A Place of Storms (AKAA, The Norm, Paris, FR)
2026 Blue (The Norm, Paris, FR)
2026 Multitudinous Seas Incarnadine (ICTAF, The Norm, Cape Town, SA)
2025 [ w a t e r ] (AKAA, Locus, Paris, FR)
2024 Fovntain II (Violet, Antwerp, BE)
2023 A Sinless Season (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured Artist: Monumental Exhibition (AKAA, Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2020 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2019 The Last Colour to Fade (WITW/KRONE, Tulbagh, SA)
2018 Die Bloue Wis (Nuweland, Oosterzee-Buren, NL)
2018 Fovntain (Smith, Cape Town, SA)
2016 There are Gold Flecks in the Lapis (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2015 The Line of Beauty (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Derek Jarman, 1994 (Brundyn+, Cape Town, SA)
2013 Far from the sea, perhaps... (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2011 Tryst (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs
2026 Gut Feeling (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2026 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2025 Frequencies of the Otherwise (Reservoir, Cape Town, SA)
2025 A Repeated Refrain (ICTAF, Locus, Cape Town, SA)
2023 ZⓈonamaco (Nuweland, Mexico City, MX)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 AKAA (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2021 1:54 London (Nuweland, London, UK)
2021 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2021 Volta Basel (Nuweland, Basel, CH)
2021 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2021 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 PEEP SHOW (HOICK, Online)
2020 AKAA (Nuweland, Online)
2020 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2019 AKAA (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2019 Re-Imagined Realities (Open24hrs, Cape Town, SA)
2016 A New Wave (Southern Guild, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Rhinos Are Coming (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Concerted Efforts (West Space, Melbourne, AUS)
2013 Positive Tension (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Context (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Outside the Lines: An Exploration of Abstract Materiality (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2026 A Place of Storms (AKAA, The Norm, Paris, FR)
2026 Blue (The Norm, Paris, FR)
2026 Multitudinous Seas Incarnadine (ICTAF, The Norm, Cape Town, SA)
2025 [ w a t e r ] (AKAA, Locus, Paris, FR)
2024 Fovntain II (Violet, Antwerp, BE)
2023 A Sinless Season (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2021 Featured Artist: Monumental Exhibition (AKAA, Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2020 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2019 The Last Colour to Fade (WITW/KRONE, Tulbagh, SA)
2018 Die Bloue Wis (Nuweland, Oosterzee-Buren, NL)
2018 Fovntain (Smith, Cape Town, SA)
2016 There are Gold Flecks in the Lapis (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2015 The Line of Beauty (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2014 Derek Jarman, 1994 (Brundyn+, Cape Town, SA)
2013 Far from the sea, perhaps... (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2011 Tryst (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
Selected Group Exhibitions & Art Fairs
2026 Gut Feeling (Everard Read, Franschhoek, SA)
2026 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2025 Frequencies of the Otherwise (Reservoir, Cape Town, SA)
2025 A Repeated Refrain (ICTAF, Locus, Cape Town, SA)
2023 ZⓈonamaco (Nuweland, Mexico City, MX)
2023 Winter (Everard Read, Cape Town, SA)
2022 AKAA (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2021 1:54 London (Nuweland, London, UK)
2021 BIG ART (Nuweland, Amsterdam, NL)
2021 Volta Basel (Nuweland, Basel, CH)
2021 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2021 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 PEEP SHOW (HOICK, Online)
2020 AKAA (Nuweland, Online)
2020 1:54 New York (Nuweland, Online)
2020 Art Rotterdam (Nuweland, Rotterdam, NL)
2019 AKAA (Nuweland, Paris, FR)
2019 Re-Imagined Realities (Open24hrs, Cape Town, SA)
2016 A New Wave (Southern Guild, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Rhinos Are Coming (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2015 Concerted Efforts (West Space, Melbourne, AUS)
2013 Positive Tension (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Context (Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA)
2012 Outside the Lines: An Exploration of Abstract Materiality (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA)