Strauss & co - 9 December 2021, Cape Town

ITEM NOTES The present lot is accompanied by a boxed collectors edition publication and a certificate of authenticity. In Nine Weeks , Gratrix turns the focus onto herself. One work in sixty-three parts, the artwork consists of a series of watercolor self-portraits created during South Africa’s military-enforced quarantine, one each day. Implemented as an Instagram project as a means of connecting to the outside world – leaving the house, even for a walk was forbidden by law except during state-sanctioned times dictated by the government – the titles of each day’s painting offer first- person views of a somewhat universal experience. Taken as a whole, the artist’s portraits are a maddening glimpse of the evolution of identity under quarantine. ARTIST BIO Georgina Gratrix was born inMexico City in 1982 and grew up in Durban, South Africa. She studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, and graduated in 2005, specialising in painting. In 2018, Gratrix was awarded the Discovery Prize at the 50th Anniversary edition of Art Brussels, for her presentation with SMAC Gallery in Brussels, Belgium. Gratrix is a recipient of the Ampersand Fellowship Award and completed a residency at the Ampersand Foundation in New York City, USA in 2018. She completed a residency in Oaxaca, Mexico, in association with a Centro de las Artes Augustín (CASA) culminating in a group exhibition entitled Crossing Night in the same year. 5 Georgina Gratrix MEXICAN/SOUTH AFRICAN 1982– Week 3, NineWeek series and Portfolio Box, eight 2020 signed and numbered 1/4 on the portfolio box; each stamped with the inscription ‘This print forms part of a limited edition box set produced and published on the occasion of The Reunion: Georgina Gratrix Feb 2021.’on the reverse. pigmented inkjet print on Epson Watercolour paper sheet size: 30 by 42 cm, each R35 000 – 50 000 PROVENANCE Kindly donated by the Artist and SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Stellenbsoch. BID 20