Bev Butkow
Wool, dressmaking scraps, string, ribbon, twine, copper rod, time and labour. Made with Thandiswa Maxinyane and Danily Hunga.. 170 x 250 cm.
Bev Butkow is a South African artist whose practice bridges material experimentation and philosophical inquiry. Drawing on the languages of weaving and painting, she creates large-scale installations and intimate works that explore how care, repetition and ritual can transform what has been overlooked.
After a career in commerce, Butkow turned fully to art, developing a distinct visual vocabulary grounded in repair, embodied making and deep feminine wisdom. In 2017, she completed an Honours degree in History of Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, followed by an MA in Fine Art in 2022.
Based in Johannesburg—a city marked by fracture, resilience and improvisation—Butkow's practice is deeply informed by its social and material landscape. Her work traverses the boundaries between textile, painting, sculpture and installation, using weaving as both a literal and metaphorical process that connects the material, the personal and the collective. Through a materially and conceptually rigorous practice, she examines how we inhabit the earth, individually and in community. Her process becomes a catalyst for imagining alternative social and spatial futures rooted in deep feminine wisdom, embodied ritual and acts of repair. Butkow first exhibited at October Gallery in the group exhibition Lineages (2026), presenting the significant work never static (2022). In 2025, Butkow was artist-in-residence at the University of Johannesburg, where she created a major woven installation transforming the Brutalist Theatre Foyer and softening its institutional architecture. Her work has been featured in the 18th International Triennial of Tapestry, Poland (2025–26), the Iziko South African National Gallery (2025–26), and Museu da Água, Lisbon. She has also exhibited internationally, including at the Dakar Biennale (2022), Origins Centre at the University of the Witwatersrand (2021, 2023), Yi Tai Projects at Art Central Hong Kong (2023), and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2019, 2024, 2025).
For sales enquiries please contact: art@octobergallery.co.uk Or call + 44 (0)20 7242 7367
View below for career highlights and works for sale by the artist.
