about

Ann Mary Gollifer

DATE OF BIRTH: 27/7/1960

NATIONALITY: BRITISH-GUYANESE

HOME LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

Ann Gollifer is a visual artist whose practice includes painting, print-making, ceramics, writing and photography. She has lived and worked in Botswana since 1985.

She graduated from Edinburgh University with a Masters degree in History of Art, 1993.

She has worked as a Senior Technical Officer at the National Museum and Art Gallery, Gaborone, under the Directorship of its founder, Alec Campbell. During this period she also worked part-time at the Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi with Sandy Grant, the Museum's founder and director.

From 1991 to 2001 she was part of the committee, involved with the administration and facilitation of the Thapong Triangle International Artist’s workshops that took place in Botswana, as well as the many smaller off-shoot art workshops that were organized annually by the Thapong committee. An Artist member of the Thapong Visual Art Centre, Gaborone, Ann was part of the executive committee, responsible for the building of the centre. Artists from Botswana, both Batswana and non-Batswana resident artists were encouraged to attend both regional and international workshops and residencies. There were residency venues in South Africa, The Bag factory in Johannesburg, Greatmore Studios in Cape Town and the Gas Works in London. There were workshops like Tupelo in South Africa, Pachipamwe in Zimbabwe, Tulipamwe in Namibia, Mbile in Zambia, Thapong in Botswana

In 2019 Ann co-founded the Art Residency Centre, Gaborone, Botswana. The Art Residency Centre is an artist led initiative that offers space to creatives in the community and with them develops new platforms for the dissemination of their work.

https://artresidencycentre.org.bw

Selected Shows

2025 Views in the Interior of Guyana 2021 in dialogue with Robert Schomburgk's Views in the Interior of Guiana 1841, Director's Gallery, Royal Geographical Society, London

2025 Botswana Focus at Latitudes Art Fair Johannesburg with the Art Residency Centre, Gaborone

2025 DECADE, Group show, Guns and Rain, Johannesburg

2025 Investec Art Fair Cape Town with Guns and Rain, Johannesburg

2024 Hold Me Said the Earth, The Origins Centre, WITS University, Johannesburg

2024 Latitudes Art Fair with Re Curate, Botswana

2024 Investec Art Fair Cape Town with Guns and Rain, Johannesburg

2023 A Sum of Days, a solo exhibition at Ed Cross Fine Art London

2023 ARCO LISBOA Art Fair, Lisbon, Portugal with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2022/23 Investec Art Fair Cape Town with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2021 1-54 London, with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2020 Caribbean Confluences- UNTITLED MIAMI2021with Guns and Rain

2020 FNB Art Fair Johannesburg with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2020 CARBO ANIMALIS solo show with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2020 INVESTEC art fair Cape Town with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2019 LATITUDES art fair Johannesburg with LL Editions Johannesburg

2019 FNB art fair Johannesburg with BKhz Gallery Johannesburg

2019 INVESTEC art fair Cape Town with Guns and Rain Johannesburg

2019 LOVE IS exhibition at the BKhz Gallery Johannesburg

2018 AKAA-ALSO KNOWN AS AFRICA, PARIS art fair with Guns and Rain

2017 ARTAFRICA FAIR, CAPE TOWN, an exhibition of work by Ann Gollifer and Jo Rogge curated by THE GUNS AND RAIN GALLERY.

2017 OMANG @ THE AVA GALLERY, CAPE TOWN, an exhibition of lino print and embroidery on fabric by Ann Gollifer and leadwood and marble sculpture by Shepherd Ndudzo.

2015 OMANG? – “Who are you?” a solo exhibition at Sophie Lalonde Art, Gaborone, lino and embroidery on fabric, exploring concepts of belonging through gender and politics.

2012 BRANDED - a solo exhibition of mono-prints at the Frame Gallery, Gaborone, Botswana.

2011 LIVING ON AN HORIZON. A TRIBUTE TO BESSIE HEAD - Solo exhibition of paintings at Circa on Jellicoe, The Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg.

2010 WHAT AM I DOING HERE? KE DIRANG HA? - Solo show: July, BICHA Gallery, Gabriel's Wharf, South Bank, London.

2009 GODDESSES AND SUPER HEROES - An exhibition of new work at the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg.

2008 WORD - a collaborative exhibition of paintings, drawings, and collage from 4 Artists: Ann Gollifer, Sedireng Mothibatsela, Steve Jobson, and Monica Mosarwa, at the Grahamstown festival, The Monument.

2006 LINHAS DE SANGUE, TERRITORIES OF THE HEART - a solo exhibition, Museu Nacional de Arte, Maputo, Mozambique.

2002 MONOMOTAPA - residency exhibition at the Fordsburg Studios, Johannesburg.

2001 HOCHE KOCHE - a multimedia performance, originated, designed and co-produced by Ann Gollifer with Steve Dyer, musician and composer, Johannesburg and the Tumbuka Dance Company, Harare. The performance premiered in Harare at HIFA and then toured: Gaborone, The Grahamstown Festival, and the Dance Festival in Avignon, France. It toured France in 2002 and returned to the WITS theatre in Johannesburg for the 2002 Dance Umbrella.

2000 THREE WOMEN THREE PERSPECTIVES - an exhibition of new work by Ann Gollifer, Coex ae Qgam (Dada), and Neo Matome that traveled to Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Windhoek and Gaborone; funded and hosted by the Alliance Francaise, Botswana.

Gallery Representation

Guns and Rain gallery, Johannesburg

Works in Public Collections

The Royal Geographical Society, London

Sacatar Foundation, Bahia State, Brazil

The Pas Collection, Antwerp, Belgium

Jack Ginsberg Centre for Book Arts, WAM, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Unisa Art Gallery Collection, Pretoria, South Africa

The Sainsbury Africa Galleries, The British Museum, London, UK

The Triangle International Art Workshops, New York, USA

The Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa

The National Museum, Gaborone, Botswana

The Thapong International Art Workshop, Gaborone, Botswana

The Mbile Art Collection, Lusaka, Zambia

Botswana Life Insurance LTD, Gaborone, Botswana

Bank of Botswana Art Collection, Gaborone, Botswana

Commissions

2009 Carter's suit, New York, USA. A commission to make a personalised suit for Carter Foster, the Curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, to wear to the Burning Man Festival 2010.

2009 Paul Harris commission, JOHANNESBURG - large scale wall panel; 30x300x300mm stretched canvases. Portrait of a family.

2008 "The Maitisong Dancers", mild steel and aluminium wall sculpture, 12 metres in length x 4 metres in height. Maitisong Theatre Entrance, Gaborone, Botswana

2006 The Donor windows, Entrance, Princess Marina Hospital, Gaborone, Botswana

Published Work

2026 - ON THE MAP: Perspectives on art from Africa South, edited by Mario Pissarra with Thulile Gamedze, Fiona Mauchan and Keely Shinners. (ANN GOLLIFER: Seeking pathways to home, KHUMO SEBAMBO)

2021 - Views in the interior of Guyana - 2022.

2015 - Men with Tales - a collection of stories from the Guides of the Okavango Delta, fully illustrated with watercolour and koki pen. Published by EGGSSON BOOKS. Gaborone. 2015. ISBN9789996803581

2015 - A frog in her throat - an illustrated children’s storybook, published in French and English editions by Snow Moon Editions, France 2015. ISBN979-10-91596-10-7 and ISBN979-10-91596-09-1, respectively.

2012 - CONCEPT a forum for creativity - Ann Gollifer was the editor of this quarterly magazine, published for the first time in Botswana in April 2012.

2011 - I don't know why I was created. DADA, Coex'Ae Qgam - by Ann Gollifer and Jenny Egner. A biography/portrait of Coex ae Qgam, Ncoekhoe painter of the Kuru Art Project, D'Kar, Botswana. Published by EGGSSON BOOKS. Gaborone. 2011. ISBN978-99912-938-1-3

2010 - Africa e Meditarraneo- n. 3-4/09 (69-700 Aprile 2010 African Fashion: containing article "Urban Camouflage Street Safaris” By Ann Gollifer

2004 - The Nata Baobab - written and illustrated by Ann Gollifer. BOTSALANO PRESS, Gaborone, 2004. ISBN99912-531-5-7