Biography

Tracy Payne (b.1965)  lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 1987.

Payne has worked form various studios in Cape Town, as well as in Johannesburg and abroad from time to time. Conducting her own residensies has had a great influence on her work, noteably Berlin and Barcelona in 1988/89, New York in 1995, Tokyo in 2002 and Dharamkot and Khajuraho in 2012. In 2014 Payne moved her studio to 196Victoria, a beautifully renovated Victorian building in the heart of Woodstock in Cape Town. For the following four years, she divided her time between painting and teaching art. Presently Payne is working full time on completing her most recent body of work with the intention of holding her 9th solo exhibition soon.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, 2013 and Muse, 2011 held at Barnard Gallery; Sacred Yang, 2007 and Sacred Yin, 2005 held at STEVENSON; Post Tokyo, 2004 held at Irma Stern Museum and Flashback, 2001 at Joao Ferreira Gallery. Her debut solo exhibition Hush Hush: A Love Story was held in her studio loft apartment in the Bo-Kaap in 1998.

Recent goup exhibitons worth noting; MERDELAMERDELAMER….curated by Kendell Geers, being held at Mario Mauroner Gallery, Vienna as part of the “Curated By” Festival, 13 September – 12 October 2019.Winter at Everard Read/CIRCA, Nano 1.3 at Barnard Gallery; Urban Archaeology at DAOR Contemporary: For the Love of It at Pop Up Place, all in Cape Town in 2019; Regroup held at Gallery 196, Cape Town in 2018. Colours held at Imibala Gallery, Somerset West in 2017. Between 2008 and 2014 her work was shown regularly at both Cape Town and Joburg Art Fairs.

Payne’s work forms part of numerous private and public collections such as the Luciano Benetton Collection in Treviso, Italy; Hans Porer Collection in Switzerland; Spier Art Collection in Cape Town, South African Department of Public Works and South African Fruit Exporters in Cape Town.