Peter Mammes

Professional record

CV / Press

Peter Mammes is a London-based artist from Johannesburg, South Africa. He began exhibiting at sixteen and has since presented solo exhibitions across South Africa, the United Kingdom and Europe.

His practice begins with intricate brush-and-ink drawing and expands into relief, sculpture and installation. Figurative images of people, animals, machines and systems of power are held within dense patterns, where beauty sits uneasily beside violence, order beside chaos, and human ambition beside its consequences.

Mammes continually develops new techniques for giving drawings a physical life, combining traditional mark-making with experimental materials and advanced production processes. His work has been informed by encounters with symbolic traditions and ideas of transformation in southern Africa, Egypt, Peru and the Amazon rainforest.

In 2019 he designed an R5 circulation coin for the South African Mint’s SA25 programme, commemorating twenty-five years of constitutional democracy. His recent exhibitions include The Last Hope in Johannesburg and The Great Filter in The Hague.

Peter Mammes standing before two of his relief works.
Peter Mammes with selected relief works.

Solo exhibitions

  1. The Great FilterNGO DEI, The Hague, Netherlands
  2. The Last HopeLizamore & Associates at The Fire Station, Johannesburg, South Africa
  3. AftermathKoop Projects, Brighton, United Kingdom
  4. EphemeronAtom Gallery, London, United Kingdom
  5. To Die ForNoho Studios, London, United Kingdom
  6. Presumed AliveHoxton 253 Art Project Space, London, United Kingdom
  7. It’s Already Too Late Once the Soldiers Have ArrivedDaville Baillie Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
  8. Dawn of the AnthropoceneToffee Gallery, Darling, South Africa
  9. EthicsPriest Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
  10. Reprisal, Subjective ObjectsFried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
  11. Nuances in a Narrow Spectrum 2.5Luvey ’n Rose, Cape Town, South Africa
  12. Nuances in a Narrow SpectrumLizamore & Associates, Johannesburg, South Africa
  13. Triumph: Prosthetics for the PeopleNIROX Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
  14. Iconography of the JustRoom Gallery & Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa
  15. Antagonistic Harmonies in First ArrangementJohannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

Selected exhibitions

  1. 75th Birthday ExhibitionAssociation of Arts Pretoria, South Africa
  2. Not on PaperThe Holy Art Gallery, London
  3. AssembleV.O Curations, London
  4. InsideFondazione Luciana Matalon, Milan
  5. Artist Statement #6Czong Institute for Contemporary Art, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
  6. Knoop / KnotStellenbosch University Art Gallery, South Africa
  7. Visible UnrealityMaschio Angioino, Naples, Italy
  8. Performing Wo/manOliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa

Selected art fairs

  1. London Art FairLondon, United Kingdom
  2. The Other Art FairLondon, United Kingdom
  3. Latitudes Art FairJohannesburg, South Africa
  4. Cape Town Art FairCape Town, South Africa
  5. Turbine Art FairJohannesburg, South Africa
  6. Art Africa FairCape Town, South Africa
Six hexagonal relief works by Peter Mammes installed together on a white gallery wall.
Selected hexagonal relief works, installation view.

Public commission

South African circulation coin

Mammes designed one of the South African Mint’s commemorative circulation coins marking 25 years of constitutional democracy, released into general circulation in 2019.

The commission extends his drawing practice into civic imagery, relief and mass-produced public objects.

Peter Mammes drawing at a glass-topped studio desk surrounded by figurative studies.
Peter Mammes at work in the studio.

Selected press

Preview of the Considering Art article Peter Mammes – Presumed Alive.
2019 · Considering Art Peter Mammes: Presumed Alive
Preview of the Daily Maverick profile of Peter Mammes.
2024 · Daily Maverick Joburg artist returns home from the Amazon with an urgent appeal

Further coverage