Nina Liebenberg is a PhD candidate at the University of Cape Town, with supervision from Professor Pippa Skotnes and Associate Professor Fritha Langerman. Nina completed her MFA at the University of Cape Town (2011), and her BAFA from the University of Stellenbosch (2003). She has been teaching on the Honours in Curatorship programme since 2013 (‘Local Issues in Curatorship’ and ‘Virtual Display’) and have facilitated annual interdisciplinary workshops for the programme, using curation as methodology to explore various overlaps and connections between diverse university departments. As a practicing artist, she has exhibited in a variety of shows, drawing on the expertise of individuals from a myriad of disciplines ranging from chemistry, medical imaging, physics, engineering and botany, to portray the intersection between the quantifiable and the poetic.
Recent exhibitions include Monochrome, The Barnard Gallery (2019); Chest: a botanical ecology, Iziko South African Museum (2018 - 2019); The Landis Museum, Glasgow International and CCA, Derry-Londonderry (2018), Age of Innocence, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (2018); Air: Inspiration-Expiration, Standard Bank Gallery (2017); About empty spaces, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (2016); Bona fides, Jan Royce Gallery (2016); Death speaks, Spin Street Gallery (2015); Scintilla: an alchemy show, Commune 1 (2014); Do It, Michaelis Gallery (2014); Language Games, Cape Town Art Fair (2014); Post-Colonial Africa, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, (2014); Suspicious Mind: Artists’ Exploration of Mind and Matter, Iziko National Gallery Annexe (2014) and Entre-vues, Marnay-sur-seine (2013).
Current Projects
2015 - present
A box with the sound of its own making: curatorship and the empathy of objects, PhD research project
Projects & Curations
2018 Experibitions: exercises in curation, Honours in Curatorship workshop
2017Rules of engagement: curating an audience, Honours in Curatorship workshop
2016The object: a workshop on materiality, Honours in Curatorship workshop
2015Drawing from the ground, The Ritchie Gallery, University of Cape Town. Curated with Carine Zaayman and Bridget Simon.
2014 The order of things: a taxonomy workshop , Honours in Curatorship workshop
2014Playtone, The Ritchie Gallery, Honours in Curatorship programme project. Curated with the Honours in Curatorship students.
2014Index: a Stephen Inggs retrospective, Michaelis Main Gallery and Centre for African Studies. Curated with Professor Stephen Inggs and Josephine Higgens.
2014Where the wild things are, The Michaelis Upper Gallery and Hiddingh Campus, University of Cape Town. Curated with the Honours in Curatorship students.
2013Taxidermy workshop, Honours in Curatorship workshop. Convened in collaboration with George Esau (Iziko Museums of South Africa)
