Sanell Aggenbach

Sanell Aggenbach was born in Cape Town in 1975 and currently lives and works in Woodstock, Cape Town. She studied Fine Art at the University of Stellenbosch, majoring in printmaking and painting. Aggenbach’s work is as illusive and ethereal as her subjects. Whether she is delving in satire or exploring intimate portraiture, her work retains a strange intimacy despite the anonymity of her subjects. Her paintings and sculptures have secured her many achievements including winning the 2003 Absa L’Atelier award. She has proved to be a critical voice in contemporary South African art and her work is represented in numerous public and private collections.

“My work deals primarily with the intersection of history and private narratives by considering the process of recall and interpretation. The emphasis of my visual output relates to visual trickery and plays on subterranean elements. My most recent paintings offer an ambiguous open-endedness, employing a restrained palette of corroded process colours. I enjoy playing with haunting ambiguities and I find that I move comfortably between the various disciplines of painting, printmaking and sculpture.”