Joe Turpin

b.1995 Johannesburg, South Africa; lives in Johannesburg.

Joe Turpin is an artist whose research practice focuses on historically charged narratives and semiotics as expansions of painting. Joe makes mixed-media installations grounded in painting that create temporal conversations about identity, memory, and history. Turpin graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York in 2023 with an MFA in Painting & Drawing, and from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg in 2018 with a BA in Fine Art.

Education

2023: MFA Painting & Drawing, Pratt Institute, New York
2018: BA (Hons) Fine Art, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg

Solo Exhibitions

2024: Complicit Victim: On the Margin of the Shoah, Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Cape Town
2024: Striking Roots, Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre, Lusaka, Zambia
2024: Set in Stone, South African Jewish Museum, Cape Town
2023: Complicit Victim: On the Margin of the Shoah, Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Durban
2023: When the Dust Settles, NWU Gallery, North West University, Potchefstroom
2021: More Than We Can Bear, Bag Factory Artists' Studios, Johannesburg
2021: Complicit Victim: On the Margin of the Shoah, Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre, Johannesburg
2017: Pop (T)Art!, Ants Parkhurst, Johannesburg
2016: No Holding Bars, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg

Group Exhibitions (International)

2023: Making Place, Thesis Exhibition, Pfizer Building, Pratt Institute, New York, United States (in fulfilment of MFA Degree)
2019: London Summer Intensive Residency Showcase, Camden Arts Centre, London, England
2018: Larroque Arts Festival, Galerie La Vieille Poste, Larroque, France
2017: Protest Stickers, Metal, Barbapapa et Armistice Exposition, Continuum espace de projet, Bordeaux, France
2017: 6th TSAI-MO Art Festival, Taichung City Tun District Art Centre, Taichung City, Taiwan
2017: Abstractive by Creative Debuts, The Black & White Building, Shoreditch, London, England
2016: What is the Future of Art?, Future Late, Tate Modern, London, England

Group Exhibitions (South Africa)

2023: Summer Salon, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg
2023: Stairways & Ruins, ViNCO, NWU Gallery, North West University, Potchefstroom
2023: Reflections, Bag Factory Artist Studios', Johannesburg
2022: Hegemony, The Hart, Troyeville, Johannesburg
2022: Spier Light Art Festival, Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch
2021: Joburg Fringe, The Art Room Parkhurst, Johannesburg
2021: Bag Factory 30 Years: So Far, The Future, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg
2021: Meeting Places, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios x Guns & Rain Gallery, Oxford Parks Precinct, Johannesburg
2021: Paper, RMB Turbine Art Fair 2020 (Online)
2020: Coexistence, TMRW Gallery (The Mixed Reality Workshop), Johannesburg
2020: Summer Salon, Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg
2020: RMB Turbine Art Fair (Online), with Bag Factory Artists’ Studios
2020: Latitudes Art Fair (Online), with with Bag Factory Artists’ Studios
2020: Myopia, William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley (Online) 
2019:  Summer Salon, Bag Factory Artists' Studios, Johannesburg
2019: IN:DIALOG Bez Valley, Moon Valley Studios, Johannesburg
2019: Everything’s For Sale, KZNSA Gallery, Durban
2019: Something Other - A Diversion In The Career Of The Artist, No End Contemporary Art Space, Johannesburg
2019: Winter Salon, Bag Factory Artists Studios, Johannesburg
2018: NEWWORK18, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg (in fulfilment of BFA Degree)
2018: INBETWEEN, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
2016: Visible Tones, curated stream, part of ‘The Evidence of Things Not Seen’, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg
2016: WakaWaka, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg
2016: Expressions of Freedom, 2016 Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, curated by Kalashnikovv Gallery
2016: MUSTRISE, ArtEC Gallery, Gqeberha, (Travelled to National Festival of the Arts, Grahamstown, June 2016)
2015: Les is More Campaign, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg
2015: Expressions of Freedom, 2015 Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival, Old Fort Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, curated by Kalashnikovv Gallery

Residencies

2024: Artist in Residence, Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre, Lusaka, Zambia
2020/2021: Artist in Residence, Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020: Artist in Residence, RAW Material Company, Dakar, Senegal
2019: London Summer Intensive, Slade School of Art & Camden Arts Centre, London, England

Awards

2022: Stutzman Foundation First Year MFA Fine Arts Awards for Three-Dimensional Art recipient
2018/19: Cassirer Welz Award finalist (Top 3)

Reviews & Articles

2024: Philip Todres, Joe Turpin - Set in Stone at SA Jewish Museum, MapMyWay
2023: CreativeFeel, When The Dust Settles | Preserving the Memory of a Lost Community, Creative Feel
2019: Nkgopoleng Moloi, Joe Turpin in the Depths of Art through Historical Narratives, Semiotics and the Expansion of his Painting Practice, Artskop

Links

Joe Turpin's website
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