Kevin Brand

2008 Mercedes Art Award winner Kevin Brand was born in Cape Town in 1953 and studied Art, majoring in sculpture at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT. Graduating in 1981, he became known for his sculptural installations of the 1980's and 90's. Brand's oeuvre from that period was primarily concerned with political subject matter, and is regarded to be among the best works of art produced in South Africa from that period. His 1994 installation, Here XVII, at the Newtown Galleries resulted in Brand receiving the FNB Vita Art Now Award for the best exhibition in Johannesburg. More recently, Kevin Brand was recipient of the Mercedes-Benz South Africa 2008 Award for Art in Public Spaces. The selection committee cited Brand's ability to reference historical events, and to "capture public imagination" through "materiality, scale and process". They concluded that Brand, "… has been a significant commentator on South African Society for almost thirty years." Kevin Brand's first solo Bell-Roberts exhibition in 2001, Balm of the Banal, featured a selection of bronze sculptures. This was followed by 4x4 of 2003, an exhibition of paintings executed in a pixilated manner. His 2008 Bell-Roberts exhibition, Set the World on Fire, is a group of unique painted wood, Perspex, and pressed aluminium wall-pieces that explore the boundary between low-relief and painting. Kevin Brand is represented in the collections of the South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Sanlam, Sasol, MTN, Vodacom, Didata, and the Arabella Sheraton. He lives and works in Cape Town, and teaches at the Peninsula University of Technology.