My process of painting echoes the way I live in the world, calling for appropriate responses to different situations, requiring particular strengths and intuitions to help direct flow and development.

Each painting requires that I take certain steps to add to, change or remove the marks made before. This very intuitive process sometimes calls for a light hearted detachment and sometimes sheer courage but there is a trust that the painting has a life of its own and works itself out in the end.

My recent works hold within them the contradictions of the lives of ordinary people around me that I find interesting. There is a tug that plays out between abstraction and figuration, clarity and mystery. I have had an affiliation with watery media for many years now, sometimes exploring the properties of ink, water colour and water soluble oil through the genre of landscape and in this show through photographs found in newspapers of people doing the most normal things. Looking at my source material which dates back to before the great global interruption, the concept of ‘what is normal’ requires some obvious reflection. Taken out of context the bodies that inhabited these original stories now take on new more universal roles. Sometimes more than one story collides in a single painting because I have literally overlapped one scene over another. Limbs collide, shapes of colour emerge or recede and the context is further obfuscated. I like to create new landscapes where contradictions can co-exist. As I work I like to explore the properties, possibilities and wilfulness of very diluted pigment.

I play with using my materials the way I usually would on paper, not seeking detail or even depth but enjoying the thrill of making a mark and seeing where it may lead. A new narrative is intimated through limited amounts of activity on the canvas, implying just enough for the viewer to interpret what they see and therefore take the story to their own conclusion.

1992
BA in Fine Arts, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Higher Diploma in Education, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

Solo Exhibitions
2022
As You Were, 131a Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
Echoes from the South, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
Trail, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Night Watch, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2009
In Our Midst, Muti Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1995
Recent Paintings by Gabrielle Raaff, The AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Two-Person Exhibiitons
2011
Realm, Salon 91 Cape Town, South Africa. People,
Chagan Contemporary, London, UK. Relation, Dorp
Street Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2008
Periphery, These Four Walls Gallery, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa

Selected Group Exhibitions
2023
Optimal Vibration, Group Exhibition, Graham Contemporary, Johannesburg
2022
PAINTER PAINTER. A group show of painters at Barnard Gallery, Cape Town
2021
Biophilia, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West
Winter Group Exhibition, 131 A Gallery Code, 131
A Gallery, Cape Town
2020
Hazy Shade of Winter, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2019
Emphatic Whispers, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
Affordable Art Fair, presented by Uprise Art, New York, NY. Cape Town Art Fair, presented by Smith Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Nano 1.2
Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Endless, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
Salad, SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Rendezvous,
SMITH Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 2017 Nano 1.1,
Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Lady Garden, Cavalli
Gallery, Somerset West, South Africa Salad, Smith Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Field, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2016
Nano.1, Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Oracle, Salon
91, Cape Town, South Africa
Paper is You III, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa 2015
Stellar, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
Kingdom, Equus Gallery, Somerset West, South Africa
However, works on paper by South African artists, Art Hub Gallery, London, UK. Group
Show, Aperture Gallery, Paris, France. 2, SMITH
Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Empire, Everard
Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. Turbine Art Fair (TAF) ,
Johannesburg, SA
2014
Scintilla: An Alchemy Show, Commune 1, Cape Town, South Africa Turbine
Art Fair (TAF), presented by Salon 91, Johannesburg, South Africa Paper is You II,
Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
Sous les paves, la plage! At Post curated by Janet Anderson
Cape Town Art Fair, presented by Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa 2012
Shoes From Chinese Ships, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
Paper is You, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2010
Coppertone 77, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa Sifting
through the madness, for the word, the line, the way, Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
2009
Supermarket, The Muti Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
20 Artists 20 Portraits, UCA Gallery, Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
2008
Spier Contemporary, The Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
Spier Contemporary, Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2005
Kinderkunst: An exhibition of lights, Whatiftheworld,Cape Town, South Africa
2003
YDESIRE, Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town, South Africa
2001
YDETAG, The National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1998
Unplugged Group Exhibition, Rembrandt Van Rijn Gallery at Market Theatre, Johannesburg, South
Africa 1994 Women on
Women, Seeff Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Art Fairs
2018
Affordable Art Fair, presented by Uprise Art, New York, NY. Cape
Town Art Fair, presented by Smith Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 2015
Turbine Art Fair (TAF) , Johannesburg, SA, presented by Salon 91
2014
Turbine Art Fair (TAF) , Johannesburg, SA, presented by Salon 91
Cape Town Art Fair, presented by Salon 91, Cape Town, South Africa
Rotterdam Art Fair, presented by Aperture Gallery, Paris, France

2007
Finalist, Spier Contemporary

1992
Absa Atelier Finalist, AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa 1992 Santam Scholarship

1991
Muratie Painting Award