Shana de Villiers (b. 2000, Sint Maarten) is a South African artist and seamstress of scraps. They graduated from The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, with a BA in Fine Art, supported by several scholarships and working as a cobbler. Their practice drifts between the performative, visual, and literary, exploring themes such as queer post-coloniality and the monstrous. Through the borrowing and transformation of found images, texts, and textiles, Shana cobbles craft, critical theory, and internet-age mythologies into wearable works, sculptures, texts, performances, and theatrical installations.
CURRENT
2025 Solo Exhibition: I am Frankie, and you still love me, Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague, NL
2025 Residency: ‘Where the Patchlings Live: between a costume and a book’, Page Not Found, The Hague, NL
GROUP EXHIBITION/PROJECT
2025 The General Meeting, Art Rotterdam, NL
2024 Overture, Trixie, The Hague, NL
2024 NIGHTSHIFT, Heden Gallery, The Hague, NL
2024 Geobacter, Quartair, The Hague, NL
2023 In Medias Res: Dinner Conversations, Omstand, Arnhem, NL
2023 Royal Academy of Art The Hague Graduation Show, The Hague, NL
RESIDENCY
2024 De Nijverheid x Amarte Fund Duo Residency
SYMPOSIUM
2022 Impossible Stories Symposium: ‘linking colonial collections and climate change through critical fabulation’ in partnership with Maastricht University at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
WORK IN COLLECTION
2023 The SIN Mask, Ine Gevers Private Collection
PUBLICATION
2024 The Case for Velvet Rock in Mnemotope 003 by Bog Bodies Press, Brussels, BE
2023 Bachelor Thesis. Splitting Mammalian Weeds: Monster for a Memory, The Hague, NL
2023 Publication of Impossible Stories Symposium: linking colonial collections and climate change through critical fabulation, Maastricht University, NL
SELF-INITIATED PROJECT
2022 An Evening with the Shadow (a performative dinner and group show) Organised and curated by Shana de Villiers, Gabriel Kolesar, Silke Riis. Barth Kapel, The Hague, NL
GRANT/SCHOLARSHIP
2023 MC de Visser Fonds (Funding for Graduation Project) 2022 Tesselschade Stichting (Scholarship)
2022 Stichting Schuurman Schimmel Van Outeren (Scholarship)
2025 Solo Exhibition: I am Frankie, and you still love me, Das Leben am Haverkamp, The Hague, NL
2025 Residency: ‘Where the Patchlings Live: between a costume and a book’, Page Not Found, The Hague, NL
GROUP EXHIBITION/PROJECT
2025 The General Meeting, Art Rotterdam, NL
2024 Overture, Trixie, The Hague, NL
2024 NIGHTSHIFT, Heden Gallery, The Hague, NL
2024 Geobacter, Quartair, The Hague, NL
2023 In Medias Res: Dinner Conversations, Omstand, Arnhem, NL
2023 Royal Academy of Art The Hague Graduation Show, The Hague, NL
RESIDENCY
2024 De Nijverheid x Amarte Fund Duo Residency
SYMPOSIUM
2022 Impossible Stories Symposium: ‘linking colonial collections and climate change through critical fabulation’ in partnership with Maastricht University at Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL
WORK IN COLLECTION
2023 The SIN Mask, Ine Gevers Private Collection
PUBLICATION
2024 The Case for Velvet Rock in Mnemotope 003 by Bog Bodies Press, Brussels, BE
2023 Bachelor Thesis. Splitting Mammalian Weeds: Monster for a Memory, The Hague, NL
2023 Publication of Impossible Stories Symposium: linking colonial collections and climate change through critical fabulation, Maastricht University, NL
SELF-INITIATED PROJECT
2022 An Evening with the Shadow (a performative dinner and group show) Organised and curated by Shana de Villiers, Gabriel Kolesar, Silke Riis. Barth Kapel, The Hague, NL
GRANT/SCHOLARSHIP
2023 MC de Visser Fonds (Funding for Graduation Project) 2022 Tesselschade Stichting (Scholarship)
2022 Stichting Schuurman Schimmel Van Outeren (Scholarship)