Lady Skollie

Based in South Africa, Lady Skollie (b. 1987 Cape Town, South Africa) is known for her bold, thought-provoking artworks. She often incorporates elements of sexuality, gender, desire and power dynamics in her medium-to-large wax crayon paintings, which are often designed to challenge or dismantle patriarchal power structures, gender roles, and societal inconsistencies—especially in regards to the plight of women. In fact, few artists working today have the capacity to depict the hopes and fears of the South American female with as much wit, wisdom and sexuality as boldly and concisely as she does. “It is time for people to feel uncomfortable,” she once said, “and for people to ask themselves very hard questions about how they relate to women, how they treat them, and how they talk to them.”

Skollie’s aesthetic can be seen as a fusion of Khoisan (indigenous) drawing traditions, with an emphasis on the flatness of the image, elongated figures and limbs, vivid colors and patterns. But it’s also influenced by Symbolist paintings from European traditions, where the use of objects and composition help to convey hidden meanings. Much of her work draws upon her own personal experiences, as well as South African history and her Khoisan Heritage.

Skollie graduated with a degree in History of Art and Dutch Literature from the University of Cape Town in 2009 and trained in printmaking. In 2022 she was named the winner of the prestigious winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist award. In 2020 she became the 10th recipient of the prestigious FNB Art Prize. In 2019 was recognized with the 2019 Mbokodo Award for Art and Design, which celebrates the pioneering spirit of South African women advancing the arts. That same year she also received the GQ Woman of the Year Award, and was commissioned to design the R5 coin to commemorate 25 years of constitutional democracy in South Africa. In 2018 she was included in OkayAfrica’s 100 Women, an annual list honoring significant African woman. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg (2021), Circa Gallery, Johannesburg (2019), the Tyburn Gallery, London (2017), the Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg (2016), Cape Town Art Fair (2015), WorldArt Gallery, Cape Town (2015)