Kim Berman
b.1960, Johannesburg.
As a printmaker Kim Berman articulates South Africa’s social and political transformation, giving voice to continued struggles against social inequalities. Berman is a Professor in Visual Art at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), and Executive Director and co-founder of Artist Proof Studio (APS), a community-based printmaking centre in Newtown, Johannesburg.
Arts Education
1989: Master of Fine Art, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts.
1981: Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Exhibitions (solo) - South Africa
2025: Remembering and Forgetting: Landscapes in Dialogue, UJ Art Gallery, Johannesburg
2012: Duets with Egon, Everard Read, Johannesburg
2010: Dislocated Landscapes, Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg.
2006: Kim Berman Prints, Bayside Gallery, Durban.
2005: New work by Kim Berman, Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg
2002: New Works, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1999: A Decade of Works, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1994: Rediscovering the Ordinary, Berman Gallery, Johannesburg.
Exhibitions (solo) - International
2006: Kim Berman, Resistance and Renewal: Selected work from 1985-2005, Slater Concourse Gallery, Tufts University, Boston.
2003: On Their Own: Recent Work, The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts.
2001: Testimonies of the Truth & Reconciliation, Cultural Centrum, Sint Niklaas, Belgium.
1997: Kim Berman and Volatile Alliances, Print Exchange, Frans Masreel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium.
1989: South Africa under Siege, MFA Thesis exhibition, Gallery Eleven, Tufts University, Boston.
Exhibitions (group) - South Africa
2010: Painters who Print-Art on Paper, The Gallery, Grand Provence, Franschhoek.
2008: Staff Exhibition, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.
2006: Aardklop National Arts Festival, Snowflake Building, Potchefstroom.
2005: Artists in Conversation, Telkom Oral History Project, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria.
2005: Women for Children, Durban Art Gallery, Durban.
2005: Resistance, Reconciliation, Reconstruction, De Beers Centenary Gallery, University of Fort Hare, Alice; William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley.
2003: Repositioning, RAU Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
2002: Landscape, Old Arts Gallery, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
2002: Transformation: Works on Paper, Art on Paper Gallery, Johannesburg.
2001: Borders, University of Stellenbosch Art Gallery, Stellenbosch.
2001: Manuscripts, Grahamstown Art Festival, Grahamstown.
2001: Art on Paper gallery, Johannesburg
2000: Mnmesyne, University of the Witwaterand, Johannesburg.
1998: We are One: Women artists, United Nations Building, Pretoria.
1998: Images of Human Rights Portfolio, Travelling exhibition, South Africa and USA.
1996: Alternative Printmaking from Gauteng, Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch.
1996: Artist Proof Studio, Ibis Gallery, New Bethesda.
1996: Gay Rights Re-Writes, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg.
1995: Volatile Alliances, Africus Johannesburg Biennale, Johannesburg.
1995: Arts Alive: Artist Proof Exhibition, Berman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1995: Arts Alive: Steamrollers Prints, ICA Gallery, Newtown, Johannesburg.
1993: Woman on Woman, Seef Trust Gallery, Cape Town.
1993: First Print Show, Artist Proof Studio, Market Galleries, Joahnnesburg.
1982: Symphony and the System, Trevor Coleman Gallery, Johannesburg.
1982: Art and Resistance, Gaberone, Botswana.
Exhibitions (group) - International
2013: Joint Exhibition: Kim Berman: South African Landscapes, Jacques Gorus Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium
2012: The Boston-Jo’burg Connection: Collaboration and Exchange at Artist Proof Studio, Tufts University Art Gallery, Massachusetts, USA
2009: Prood + Legacy, Sandra and Philip Gordon Gallery, Boston Arts Academy, Boston.
2008: Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art, Fowler Museum, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles.
2006: Healing Through Art: Women, AIDS & Hope in South Africa, Pendleton Centre for the Arts, Oregon, USA.
2006: Home Grown, Arts Guild of Rahway, New Jersey, New York.
2005: IMPRINTS: Works on Paper, Axis Gallery, New York.
2004: Assemblies: Excavation & Reconstruction in African Contemporary Art, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.
2003: Coexistence: Contemporary Cultural Production in South Africa, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Massachusetts.
2003: HOMELAND, Sawhill Gallery, James Madison University, Virginia.
2003: Inscribing Meaning: African Arts of Communication, The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
2003: Artists for Human Rights Portfolio and Artist Proof Studio, Monserrat College of Art Gallery, Massachusetts.
2003: Veerle Rooms and Friends, Antwerp, Belgium.
2001: Alumni Juried Exhibition, Tufts University Gallery, Medford, Massachusetts.
2000: Paper Prayers, AIDS Awareness Exhibition, Frauen Museum, Bonn, Germany.
2000: Annual Exhibition, The Rutgers Centre for Innovative Printer Paper, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1998: Women and Walls and Fantasies Invoked by the Vapour of the Red Spirit, Creiger-Dane Gallery, Boston.
1998: Printmakers at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1996: Common and Uncommon Ground: South African Art to Atlanta, City Gallery East, Atlanta.
1996: Gynika Women Printmakers and South African Women Printmakers, Carlose Magnus College of Art, Antwerp, Belgium.
1996: South African Printmakers- ‘Prentmaksters’ Female Graphic Artists of Cognate Language, Town Museum of Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.
1996: Memorial Foundation Exhibition- Yad Vashem, The First Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel.
1995: De L’Afrique, Contemporary African Art, Gallery Yahia, Tunisia and France.
1995: New Realities: A South African Evening, Stiab Gallery, New York.
1990: Contemporary Art Against Apartheid, Stuart Lavy Gallery, New York.
1990: Comment on the Eighties, Laura Knott Gallery, Bradford College, Massachusetts.
1989: South African Expressions of Resistance, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA.
1989: Witness of the Time, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
1988: Boston Now: Works on Paper, Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston.
1987: Five South Africans: An Exhibition to benefit fund for a free South Africa, Cambridge, USA.
1987: Hour of the Furnaces: Art About Political Oppression, The Newtown Centre, Newtownville; Boston Printmakers, Boston.
1987: Women’s Work: Political Art by Women, Femmecore Space, Boston.
1986: Culture and Liberation, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston.
1986: Evils of Power, Southeastern Massachusetts University, Massachusetts.
1986: Choices: Four South Africans, Four Walls Gallery, New Jersey.
1984: Art Against Apartheid, Columbia University, New York, USA.
Residencies
2019: Fellowship, Ampersand Foundation, New York.
2017: Artist in Residency, The Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Ireland.
2003: Artist in Residency, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
2001: Artist in Residency, Frans Masereel Centrum Kasterlee, Belgium.
1999: Visiting Artist, Rugters Centre for Innovative Print Paper, New Brunswick, New Jersey.
1993: Artist in Residency, Frans Masereel centrum, Antwerp, Belgium.
Publications
2024: Berman, K. "The story of Artist Proof Studio and the building of a democratic art school in South Africa," in Designing Schools and Democratic Learning Environments: A Global Perspective, eds. Nathan, Mendoza & Rojas, Palgrave Macmillan
2019: Berman, K & Le Baron, M. 'Crossing Worlds: South–North Collaborations as Creative Encounters with Arts, Humanities and Sciences', Critical Arts. Routledge.
2018: Kim Berman, 'Artist Books as Democratic Force', in Books Bones & Other Things, Sun Media.
2018: Mchunu, K and Berman, K. 'Arts-based methods as tools for co-design in a South African community-based design co-operative', Cubic Journal.
2017: Sarra, J. and Berman, K. 'Ubuntu as a Tool for Resilience: Arts, Microbusiness, and Social Justice in South Africa', Conflict Resolution Quarterly.
2017: Kim Berman. 'Finding Voice: A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change', New Public Scholarship, University of Michigan Press, Michigan.
2013: Kim Berman, 'Students as Agents of Change: Engagement between University-based art students and Alternative Spaces', Third Text, 2013, vol. 27, ed. 3.
2011: Kim Berman, 'Artist Proof Studio: twenty years of responding to South African transformation imperatives', De Arte, vol. 84, University of South Africa.
2011: Kim Berman. 'Craft enterprise development: Surviving, responding to, and transforming a South African government poverty alleviation programme', Journal of Arts and Communities (JAAC), Vol. 1, ed. 3.
2011: Kim Berman, 'Artist Proof Studio Turns Twenty', Art South Africa. Vol. 10, ed. 04.
2010: Kim Berman, 'The Role of the Visual Arts in Social Change in South Africa', The International Journal of the Arts in Society, vol. 1, issue 5, pp. 123-136.
2010: Mphapho Hlasane, 'Awareness-Action-Advocacy: 12 Years of Paper Prayers at Artist Proof Studio', DUT Gallery, Durban.
2010: Michael Godby, 'The Lie of the Land: Representations of the South African landscape', Iziko Michaelis Collection, Cape Town.
2008: Kim Berman, 'An opportunity for interdisciplinary and practice-based research', FADA Research Newsletter, issue 10, p. 8.
2008: William Cleveland, 'Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontline', New Village Press, Oakland.
2008: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen (ed.), 'Dis-location, re-location: exploring alienation and identity in South Africa', David Krut Publishers, Johannesburg.
2006: Phillippa Hobbs, 'Messages and Meaning: The MTN Art Collection ', David Krut Publishers, Johannesburg.
2005: Kim Berman and Stompie Selibe, 'Artist Proof Studios: A journey of reconciliation'. Brandeis University.
2005: L. Burger et al. (eds), 'Art at Work: A decade and more of the Sasol Art Collection', Sasol Ltd, Johannesburg.
2005: Kim Berman, 'New Partners New Knowlegde: Sustaining Learners and Social Change through Participatory Action Research', FADA Newsletter, issue 5, pp 3-5.
2004: Sophie Perryer, '10 years 100 artists: Art in a Democratic South Africa', Bell Roberts, Cape Town.
2004: Philippa Hobbs (ed.), 'Resistance Reconciliation Reconstruction: An MTN Exhibition celebrating 10 years of Democracy', MTN Foundation, Johannesburg.
2004: Virginia MacKenny, 'Other Landscapes', Art South Africa, vol 3, issue 1, p 35.
2004: Kim Berman, 'Archival Paper: A model for Project-Based Research', FADA Newsletter, issue 3, p 3.
2001: Kim Berman, 'Artist Proof Studio: African Incarnation in Proof in Print', Boston Public Library, Boston.
2001: Anna Varney, Manuscript Exhibition, Botsotso Publishing, Johannesburg (catalogue).
1998: Cliffors Collard, (ed.), 'The Collectors Guide to Art & Artists in South Africa', SA Institute of Artists and Designers, Chase Publishing, United Kingdom.
1998: 'Paper Prayers – Aids Awareness through the art of Printmaking', The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
1997: Philipa Hobbs & Elizabeth Rankin (eds.), 'Printmaking in a transforming South Africa', David Philip, Cape Town and Johannesburg.
1996: Steven Sack (ed.), 'Common and Uncommon ground: South African Art in Atlanta', City Gallery East, Georgia.
1990: Kim Berman, 'People’s Printmaking & Papermaking Handbook', COSAW, Cape Town.
Awards
2024: National Research Foundation (NRF) Achievement Award: Public Engagement with Research Award
2019: Awarded an Ampersand Foundation Fellowship for a month in New York which facilitated an artist-residency to collaborate on the artist’s book Walls of Kakatocracy with Robbin Silverberg and two USA book launches of Finding Voice: A Visual Arts Approach to Engaging Social Change at SMFA at Tufts, Boston and at the University of Michigan
2019: Grant, UJ Teaching and Learning Innovation Award.
2018: Fellowship, Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies (PWIAS) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS).
2018: Awarded a Wallenberg Fellowship over 3 years from the Peter Wall Institute of Advanced Studies (PWIAS) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies (STIAS) 2015-2018. This included co-convening two symposia named Being Human in the 21st Century: Arts and Social Transformation
2011: Award, National Research Foundation Competitive Research Grant.
2006: Sasol Wax Award, Sasol Basement Gallery, Johannesburg.
2008: Best Researcher Prize for 2007/8, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg.
2007: Gold Award, Everglades International Film Festival, Durban.
2006: Alumni Recognition Award, Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship, Tufts University, Massachusetts
2004: Art and Culture Trust Award, Best Funded Project: Artists Proof Studio.
2004: Vice Chancellor’s Special Research Award: Joint Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year, Trans World Radio.
2003: Vice Chancellor Special Research Award: Best Senior Researcher.
2003: Wits Alumni Honour Award Nominee, Outstanding contribution to the Community.
2001: Runner-up, the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) awards for activities other than Research and Innovation over the last two years.
1999: Technikon Fellowship Awards for 1998/9.
Conference papers
2014: Keynote lecture: Stories of Change, 16th ACASA Triennial Symposium on African Art, Arts Council of the African Studies Association, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
2014: Amy Marie Sears Visiting Artist, St. Catherine University, Department of Art and Art History, St Paul, Minnesota, USA
2010: Imagination and agency: Facilitating social change through the visual arts, Drama for Life Conference: Arts Activism, Education and Therapies; Transforming Communities Across Africa, Wits University, Johannesburg.
2010: Paper Prayers: Twelve Years of Awareness and Advocacy Programmes at Artist Proof Studios, Art and Social Justice: Exploring the link between art, social justice and health, Durban University of Technology, Durban.
2008: Cultural Action for Change: Sustaining Learners and Social Change through Participatory Action Research, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg.
2008: Can Art Save Lives? The Creative Arts, Community Engagement and HIV/AIDS in South Africa, University of Michigan, Michigan.
2007: Can Art Save Lives? An HIV/AIDS Action Project in South Africa, Educating Women for a World in Crisis, Newcomb College Institute, Tulane University, New Orleans.
2007: New Craft-Future Voices, University of Dundee, Scotland.
2007: Shifting the Paradigm: The need for assessment criteria for community-engaged research in Visual Arts, The State of the Art and the Artists, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch.
2007: Transformational practices in community learning: a South African case study, The 14th International Learning Conference, Wits University, Johannesburg.
2007: New Partners/New Knowledge: Sustaining learners and social change through participatory action research, SAADHE Conference on Community Engagement, University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
2007: Visual Arts as a tool for transformation in South Africa, Limmud South Africa, Wits Medical School, Johannesburg.
2006: Glimpses of Transformation in Institutional Culture at the University of Johannesburg: A case study of Phumani Paper,
South African Association of Visual Art Historians 22nd Annual Conference, Vaal University of Technology, Gauteng.
2006: The Politics of Fear, The EPIIC International Symposium, Institute for Global Leadership, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts.
2006: Revisiting the Past, Transforming the Future, Conference for Women’s History Month, Montclair State University, New Jersey.
2003: Print studios and Print politics, IMPACT 2003, University of Cape Town, Cape Town.
2003: Making Histories: Revolution and Representation, School of the Museum of Fine Art, Massachusetts.
2002: Phumani Paper: A case study of transformation in Higher Education, First Tabeisa International Conference on Higher Education and Economic Regeneration, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town.
2001: Printmaking in South Africa and its role in Social Transformation, Proof in Print: A Community of Printmaking Studios Symposium, Boston Public Library, Boston.
2001: The role of Art in Healing and Transformation: Paper Prayers and Papermaking poverty relief projects, Art and Healing, Wits University Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and The Art Therapy Centre, Museum Africa, Johannesburg.
Reviews
2009: Cate McQuaid, Messages from the natural world, The Boston Globe, November 4
2008: A. McKeowen, Hand Papermaking, Vol. 23(2) Winter pp. 38-41
2007: C. Mullen Kreamer, M. N. Roberts et. al. Smithsonian Institution, p. 142 and p. 211
2006: Robyn Sassen, Bringing collaborators into fray, South African Jewish Report, p. 48, 15 September
2006: Business Day Art Supplement, p. 9, June
2006: Weekender, The Weekend Review, September 2
2006: Sunday Independent, p. 11, September 3
2006: Star Tonight, March 16
2006: Mail and Guardian, September 1, p. 10
2006: Classic Feel Magazine, p. 52, September 1
2006: Beeld Plus, p. 8, September 8
2006: The South African Art Times, February, April, Issue 4, May
2005: Micheal Coulson, Financial Mail, November
2005: Robyn Sassen, SA Jewish Report, November 4
2005: Christine Temin, A growing South African presence, The Boston Globe, January 19
2003: Christine Temin, The Aftermath of Upheaval, The Boston Globe, February 28
2003: Christine Temin, Rebuilding art of the Ashes, Printmaker loses partner and studio to fire in South Africa: Boston Fund-raisers are planned, The Boston Globe, Marh 19
2003: Robyn Sassen, Fire – Metaphor for Cleansing, but also Destruction, SA Jewish Report, March 19
2003: R. Hopkins, After Apartheid South African Art Crosses Boundaries, The Boston Phoenix, January 12
2002: Across Campus, Issue 05/02, Technikon Witwatersrand. Laetitia Pople, Sonneblomme se laaste waak, Plus 3, August 15
2001: Kim Berman kyk on haar swarte veleden Zuid Afrika verchoore, Gazet van Antwerp, September 13. Frieda Groffy, De Waarheidscommisie, Magazine Accenten, September
1999: Nina Johnson, Revelations of the Truth Commission holds the hope of rebuilding a wasteland, Sunday Independent, August 9. Lucia Berger, A Decade se Skeepings, Die Beeld, Johannesburg
1998: J. Maluleke, Technikon Lecturer Wins Overseas Prize, The Citizen, October 22
1997: Christine Temin, With Subjects Political nad Whimsical, printmakers push the ‘Bounds’, The Boston Globe, March 20
1996: Common and Uncommon Grounds, Vuka SA, Vol. 1 no. 6
1994: Christine Temin, The Art of South Africans, The Boston Sunday Globe, December
Collections
South African Broadcasting Corporation, Johannesburg
Billiton, Johannesburg
SASOL, Johannesburg
Constitutional Court of South Africa, Johannesburg
Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria.
UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria.
Stellenbosch University Art Museum, Stellenbosch.
Gauteng Legislature Collection, Johannesburg.
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
University of Antwerp, Belgium.
Smithsonian Institution – National Museum of African Art, Washington DC.
Duxbury Complex Museum, Duxbury, Massachusetts, USA.
Rugters Centre for Innovative Print and Paper, New Jersey.
Johnson and Johnson International, New Brunswick.
SA Department of Foreign Affairs.
Boston Public Library, Boston.
Boston Museum of Fine Art, Boston.
Special United Nations Committee on South Africa, New York.
Stuart Levy Gallery, New York.
Other
2024: Curated 30 Years of Democracy exhibition, FADA Gallery, UJ
2023: Co-curator, "Ntlo E Etsamayang (The Walking House)" by Mmakgabo Sebidi, UJ Art Gallery
2020: Co-founded The Lockdown Collection (TLC) (an initiative to raise funds for artists during COVID-19 lockdown)
2019: Co-curator: Artist Proof Studio: A Journey in Co-creation, FADA Gallery, UJ
2018: Appointed as Professor, Department of Visual Arts, Faculty of Art Design and Architecture (FADA), UJ
2010: Mentor, Mpumalanga Journey, Artspace, Johannesburg.
2010: Associate Professor, Department of Visual Arts, University of Johannesburg
2005 - 2010: Director on the Board and Management mentor, Phumani Paper, University of Johannesburg.
2003: Guest Lecturer, USA Research visit, School of the Museum of Fine Arts; The Art Complex, Duxbury Museum; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; Browne & Nicholas School; Middlesex College; Wheaton College; Harvard University; Massachusetts College of Art; Montclair University; Art Institute of Boston and University of Michigan.
2003 - 2004: International Fellowship: Recasting Reconciliation through Culture and the Arts, Waltham, Massachusetts.
2000 - 2005: Programme Director, Phumani Paper, Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Johannesburg.
1995 - 2009: Senior Lecturer, Fine Art Department, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg.
1991: Founder and Executive Director, Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg.
1989 - 1997: Instructor, Summer School Printmaking Workshop, School of the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Massachusetts.
1989 - 1993: Development and Field Coordinator, KUSOMA Women’s Training Programme, South Africa.
1984 - 1990: Printmaking instructor, Newtown Jewish Community Centre, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
1984 - 1989: Master Printer, Mixit Studios, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Simone Heymans, ‘Transformative art practice: a conversation with Kim Berman’, (ASAI, 2019)
Drew Forrest, 2025, Kim Berman’s fire sermon, Mail & Guardian
Laura Ferguson, 2019, Art as a Revolutionary Force, TuftsNow
Honouring a legacy: 10 minutes with artist Kim Berman
Nathi Simelane, 2019, William Kentridge in conversation with Kim Berman (Artist Proof Studio
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