Chris Soal

Chris Soal (b. 1994, South Africa) is an award-winning, emerging artist.

Living and working between Johannesburg — a “city in tension” as Soal calls it — and Cape Town, has had a great impact on the artist’s work, as this position is “often about locating oneself in that space, both as a response and a critique.” Through his use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, in conjunction with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable and other industrial materials, Soal’s work examines structural impacts on urban living, reflects on the individual in relation to the collective, and foregrounds ecological concerns.

Soal’s spatial approach to sculpture reveals a sensitivity to texture, light and form, expressed in an abstract minimalist language. While, conceptually, his works refer to the socio-political context of their making, highlighting the histories embedded in the found material, and utilising them in a way that challenges societal assumptions of value.