About | Liberty Battson

Liberty Battson

Biography

Liberty Battson was born and raised in Benoni, South Africa. She matriculated from St. Dunstan's College in 2009 and graduated with a BA Fine Arts Degree at the University of Pretoria in 2013. Battson has a winning streak behind her. Most notably: the 2014 Absa L’Atelier overall winner, the 2013 Sasol New Signatures merit award winner, and the 2012 Thami Mnyele Fine Arts painting merit award winner. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions. She was also a featured artist at the 2015 and 2017 KKNK National Arts Festival- Oudtshoorn and the Clover Aardklop National Arts Festival- Potchefstroom (2016). Battson featured as part of the Cool Capital initiative at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale, the Emerging Painters exhibition at Turbine Art Fair 2016, the FNB Art fair 2016 (Everard Read Gallery), and Cape Town Art fair 2017(Everard Read Gallery). Battson had her début solo exhibition at the Absa Gallery in June 2016 which traveled to CIRCA Cape Town later that year and was a sell out show. Battson exhibits with Everard Read London, Everard Read and CIRCA (Johannesburg and Cape Town). She had her third solo exhibition in April 2018 at Everard Read Cape Town and her fourth solo in March 2019 at Everard Read Gallery in Franschoek, South Africa.

Current work

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The title of this exhibition is written in Morse code. Battson explores with typical wit and percipience, the common belief that contemporary art is a cryptogram with the decoding key jealously guarded by “those in the know”. Inspired by statements like, “I don’t get conceptual art”, “it goes right over my head” and “I’m not artsy”, the artist shows that art is a language with a vocabulary and grammar that we can deconstruct, decipher and learn.

In this small, lush and sensual exhibition, Battson demonstrates her artistic skill and presents a master class in aesthetics, something that is paradoxically accessible to all.

Liberty Battson

Awards

Liberty Battson won the 2014 Absa L’Atelier Art Competition with her piece "Odds of an Artist Like Me", a diptych in 2K automotive paint which is her preferred medium on canvas. As part of her prize, Battson won 150-000 ZAR, a 6 month residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, and a solo exhibition in South Africa in 2016.

Liberty Battson

Collections

Liberty’s work is represented in notable collections such as Nando's Corporate Collection, Spier Collection, Telkom, Sasol, Ellerman House and Absa as well as numerous private collections.