Terry Kurgan is an artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. Most of her projects are realized through photo-based media in a practice that is characterized by an underlying coherence that links her work in diverse fields and often, across disciplines. Inter-related concerns run through works made for different contexts, whether personal projects developed for a gallery/museum, projects made in response to a public space and its associated community, or projects realized in relation to the social communications needs of a business or corporate environment. Kurgan’s artistic interest is in photography, and in the nature of all photographic transactions. Her creative process is driven by a desire to establish relationships and directly engage with people, community and place alongside a keen interest in the confluence of public and private realm issues and spaces.

She particularly enjoys projects that require a contextual response. These have been sited in spaces as diverse as a maternity hospital, a popular Johannesburg shopping mall and a prison, and combine design and spatial understanding with a new and exciting way of representing contemporary South African social issues. Kurgan studied Fine Art in South Africa and the U.S.A, has taught at South African universities and often consults to media and social communications companies. She is an active member of the Joubert Park Project, an energetic artist’s collective who share a passion for projects in Johannesburg’s inner city. Kurgan won the prestigious South African FNB Vita Prize for contemporary art in 2000 and was nominated with her client and collaborators for Business Art South Africa/Business Day awards in 2004 and 2005. She has exhibited broadly, nationally and internationally and her work is represented in most major public and corporate South African collections and art publications.

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