Terry Kurgan was born in 1958 in Cape Town, and now lives and works in Johannesburg. This artist, writer, and curator runs a diverse studio and public-sphere practice focused on the confluence of issues and spaces of the public and private realms. Her work engages with the transformation of Johannesburg’s inner city and is often a process of collaboration and engagement: with other professionals, and with the public associated with the places in which her team is engaged. These projects have been sited in spaces as diverse as a maternity hospital, a public library, a popular Johannesburg shopping mall, an inner-city park, and a prison.
Kurgan’s work has been awarded many prizes and grants, and she has exhibited and published broadly in South Africa and internationally. Her primary artistic interest is in photography: photographic images as material for interpretation, and also the complex and paradoxical nature of all photographic transactions. Kurgan’s recent book, Hotel Yeoville, was published by Fourthwall Books, Johannesburg, in 2013.
