Jane Alexander (1959) is one of the most celebrated artists in South Africa. She is a female artist best known for her sculpture, The Butcher Boys. She works in sculpture, photomontages, photography and video.
Jane Alexander is interested in human behavior, conflicts in history, cultural memories of abuse and the lack of global interference during apartheid. Alexander's work is relevant both in the current Post- Apartheid social environment in South Africa and abroad.
Alexander was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She grew up in the peak of South African Apartheid in the early 1980s. Growing up during the time of apartheid in South Africa, Alexander was sheltered from the police and street violence of the time until she moved to Braamfontein, South Africa to be closer to her university. Apartheid – an Afrikaans word meaning "separateness" - was a system of racial segregation in South Africa that lasted from 1948 to 1994. Apartheid legislation created separate educational institutions based on a person's skin color. Art instruction was included in the curriculum for whites, but not for blacks or Indians. In 1959, law decreed that only whites could undertake fine art training at universities or tech schools. In the late 1970s, art had to choose to focus on form over content or combating apartheid through art. From 1985 to 1989 – during States of Emergency – white artists like Alexander had greater liberties to challenge apartheid and bring awareness to the rest of the world through their art.
Her interest in these issues influenced her subsequent installations and art pieces. Inspired early on in her career by the figurative works of George Segal, Ed and Nancy Kienholz, Duane Hanson, and David Goldblatt. Alexander attended the University of the Witwatersrand, where she obtained a bachelor's degree and a Master of Arts in Fine Arts in 1982 and 1988. Currently, she is senior lecturer of sculpture, photography and Drawing at Michaelis school of fine art in Cape Town where she has taught since 1998.
Mutilated by the violence of Apartheid, Alexander's pieces often contain opposing themes of attraction and repulsion, Human and Animal and Grotesque yet vulnerable. The human-animals in her work can be seen as the inhuman nature of apartheid society. The distinctions in Alexander's work between the victim and the victimizers, the oppressor and the oppressed are blurred. Her hybrid forms suggest the normalizing of the grotesque motricity of violence such as apartheid and the capability of ordinary individuals to become the ruthless aggressors when forming part of a collective with an agenda of oppression and violence. These grotesque figures do not horrify us because they are inhuman, rather, because they are so fundamentally human. Alexander's work also shows the potential for human resilience, empowerment and dignity in the face of violence, adversity, and oppression, as well as the insecurity, and fear of those in positions of power. Her human-animals send out warnings about the consequences of history and hint at possible futures. Her work portrays politically and socially charged characters without ever making her exact message opaquely obvious, nor does she use signifiers such as banners, slogans or propaganda images.
Alexander prefers to work with site-specific pieces, especially those with historical, societal or spiritual resonances and often produces work that can be interchangeable between different site-specific instillations. Alexander does not put work on a pedestal and avoids any obvious barriers between the work and the viewer. In the past she was known to drag rotting carcasses into her studio for their bones. She casts or models her sculptures in plaster, building them to the proportions of her friends and colleagues, and paints her modeled figures with oil paints. Other materials of choice ceramic, fiberglass, animal bones, and animal horns. She also uses found objects and materials in many of her pieces, such as shoes and garments. One of her figures even wore an authentic South African prison uniform.
© 2025. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Jane Alexander or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
 |
| Butcher Boys, 1985-86 |
 |
| Untitled, 1985-86 |
 |
| West Coast African Angel, 1985-86 |
 |
| Shepherd, 1986 |
 |
| Something's going down, 1993-94 |
 |
| Serviceman, 1994 |
 |
| Belief and Ritual / Respecting, 1995 |
 |
| Bom boy, 1998 |
 |
| Bom boy, 1998 |
 |
| African Adventure, 1999–2002 |
 |
| African Adventure, 1999–2002 |
 |
| African Adventure, 1999–2002 |
 |
| African Adventure, 1999–2002 |
 |
| Verity, faith and Justice, 2006 |
 |
| Frontier with ghost, 2007 |
 |
| Harbinger in Correctional Uniform, Last March, 2007 |
 |
| Infantry with Beast, 27 Figures, 2008-10 |
 |
| Grand Salon, Hotel Dajti, 2009 |
 |
| Infantry with Beast, 2009 |
 |
| The Beast in the Human, and Vice Versa, 2013 |
 |
| Caravan, 2018 |
 |
| Flock, 2018 |
 |
| Floodlight, 2021 |
 |
| Faith |
 |
| Security |
 |
| Street Cadets with Harbinger- Wish, Walk Loop, Long, detail |
 |
| Street Cadets with Harbinger- Wish, Walk Loop, Long |
 |
| Street Cadets with Harbinger- Wish, Walk Loop, Long |
 |
| Unknown title |
