About Bettie
My current focus on experimental photography at this latter part of my life, follows on a career dedicated to the visual arts in various forms: as free-lance arts-writer for local media after obtaining a Masters in Art History, working at the Johannesburg Art-Museum in Joubert Park and lecturing at the University of Johannesburg, formerly known as Randse Afrikaanse Universiteit. Johannesburg).
The shift from ‘onlooker’ to ‘doer’ (creating my own photographic artworks), gradually became a major occupation over the past decade. The move towards fine art photography was prompted by a series of events: first the surprise when an online fine-art photo gallery Camera Obscura presented a feature on me. Then an invitation for a solo exhibition at a new Waterkant Art Gallery in Cape Town, which coincided with moving to the Cape. The work sold to local and international collectors when it was entered for the Affordable Art Fair in New York. Another solo followed in 2016. I have also participated in many group exhibitions, including the Month of Photography exhibition in Cape Town during 2015.
Since 2015 I’ve gone to study photography for two years respectively at Vega School for Photography (2016) and Ruth Prowse Art School (2017)
In 2019 I was selected for a Solo exhibition at Woordfees (Word Festival) at the Stellenbosch University in the Western Cape, and produced two artist’s books (in codex format and another as an installation) in addition to large framed pictures against the wall. The title: Inside Out – The Book as Art Museum, the theme based on Time.
2020 started with a group show at the P H Centre for Photography, Cape Town on the theme Also in 2019 two of my experimental digital works were selected for a Print Group at the Eclectica Print Gallery in Cape Town, State of Mind. I was delighted to be in the company that included post-graduate art students from the University of Cape Town, as well as the head of the Photography department there, Stephen Inggs as well as well-known names like Michael Meyersfeld.
2020 Currently I’m in the process of having another artists book printed – awaiting the colour proofs! Titel: Covid-10 The Gift of Walls – Dys-U-Topia. The latter being a combination of the words and concepts: Dystopia and Utopia. As with the Book as Art Museum in 2019 this book again alludes to the art exhibition. Instead of chapters there are Rooms dividing sections introduced under titles: Botany; Humans; Humanoid Beings; Humanoid Structures.