Diane Victor

The Sower

Beware the Lap of Luxury

They keep believing everything

Transsubstation

Unexpected bad weather

Acting on a cliche

They sleep in groups for safety

They run for their lives

Somewhere over the rainbow

Mundo Inverso: Daily Miracles

Mundo Inverso: She comes to buy salvation

Mundo Inverso: Brace Yourself

Mundo Inverso: He shows his other side

Mundo Inverso: House Hunting

Mundo Inverso: Nothing is to be believed

Off cut (ed. of 30)

After Eden (ed. of 20)

Bluebeard's Wife (ed. of 20)

St. George Despairs (ed. of 20)

Little Dystopia (ed. of 40)

Arachne and Athena - (ed. of 30)

Ganemede - (ed. of 30)

Minotaur - (ed. of 30)

The Rape of Africa - (ed. of 30)

The Death of Adonis - (ed. of 30)

Actaeon Dreams - (ed. of 30)

Leda and the White-Backed Vulture - (ed. of 30)

Apollo And Daphne - (ed. of 30)

Springbokkie - Trojan (ed. of 30)

The Swing Of The Pendulum (ed. of 30)

Safe as Houses - (ed. of 30)

Last Supper - Enswined (ed. of 30)

Romulus and Remus - (ed. of 30)

The Grand Magician - (ed. of 20)

One Night - (ed. of 20)

The emperor's new residence

The Drowning Economists

Collaboration History

Diane Victor and the David Krut Workshop (DKW) first collaborated in early 2008 on three large etchings and in 2009 Victor originated and editioned a series of drypoints at DKW, titled Birth of a Nation. These works were exhibited at David Krut Projects New York, and a selection from the series featured at her show at Grinnell College, Iowa, in early 2011.

Victor was the subject of TAXI-013 (2008) from the David Krut Publishing TAXI Art Book series of artist monographs – the first series of its kind in South Africa. This publication was followed in January 2012 by Burning the Candle at Both Ends, published to coincide with Victor’s two-part exhibition Ashes to Ashes and Smoke to Dust, which was presented the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery in collaboration with David Krut Projects (DKP). Selected work from this show was later exhibited at DKP Johannesburg.

Victor has completed two residencies in the United States with DKP New York. During the first residency in 2011, Victor created a series of watercolour monotypes in collaboration with master printer Phil Sanders, who was at the time the collaborating printer at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Studio.

She returned to America in 2012 and DKP facilitated another collaboration between Victor and the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Studio (and Phil Sanders as collaborating printer). During this period Victor created the works Let Sleeping Crocs Lie, The Grand Magician, The Sower, Jonny and the Bunny Boy, One Night, and Ash, which were first exhibited by DKP at the 2012 Johannesburg Art Fair.

In 2014, DKP Cape Town presented a solo exhibition of Victor’s work, titled The Needle and the Damage Done. Three years later Victor deepened her relationship with DKP in New York with another exhibition, Showing Truth to Power.

In January 2023, Victor was completing a residency in New York with fellow artist Gordon Froud. A pop-up exhibition of the works created during this time were presented at the David Krut gallery in New York

Victor’s work has also been included in numerous group exhibition at the various DKP galleries over the years. Victor continues to collaborate the team at DKW.

Biography

Diane Victor was born in Witbank, South Africa, in 1964. She received her BA Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg with a major in Printmaking. In addition to graduating with distinction and winning various awards, Victor also became the youngest recipient of the prestigious Volkskas Atelier Award in 1988. The Volkskas Award granted Victor a ten-month stay at the Cité International des Artes in Paris, allowing her time to work collaboratively with other experienced printmakers and to observe and reflect on a society very different from her own.

Since 1990, Victor has been a part-time lecturer, teaching drawing and printmaking, at various South African institutions including the University of Pretoria, Wits Technikon, Pretoria Technikon, Open Window Academy, Vaal Triangle Technikon, the University of the Witwatersrand, Rhodes University and the University of Johannesburg.

The tension generated by Diane Victor’s impressive body of drawings and prints arises not only from her biting social commentary and the sometimes macabre nature of her images and narratives, but from an interplay between the tough and the fragile, the hard edges of her visual narratives and the delicate mark-making and fragility of her preferred media.