ABOUT TAMARA OSSO
Artist Statement
I work between dance and visual art. Movement is both a way of researching and a way of making: a gesture can become a line, a trace or the beginning of an image. My experience as a dancer continues to shape how I approach painting, drawing and printmaking.
I am interested in how bodies inhabit space, and how freedom, vulnerability and desire are felt through movement. Everyday gestures and rituals offer starting points for work that moves between lived experience and imagination.
Collaboration opens this process to other bodies and perspectives. Working with dancers, artists and communities, I explore how making together can create space for play, attention and exchange. The work holds something of these encounters, translating movement into marks that can be revisited and experienced differently over time.
Biography
Tamara Osso is a Johannesburg-based visual artist, performer and educator working across painting, drawing, printmaking and performance. Her background as a professional dancer informs an interdisciplinary practice exploring the body, movement and mark-making.
Through studio work, live performance and collaboration, she investigates how gesture becomes image, how bodies inhabit space, and how individual experience connects with collective activity. Recent work brings dance and drawing into direct conversation, using movement to explore presence, memory and transformation.
Her solo exhibitions include *The Paradise of Normality* (2022) and *Making Grass* (2023) at David Krut Projects. Her 2026 practice includes the live performance-drawing *The Octopus Meets Giselle*.
Osso holds an MA in Fine Art and a Postgraduate Certificate in Education, both with distinction, from the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is a PhD candidate in the Department of Interdisciplinary Arts and Culture Studies at the Wits School of Arts (WSOA), Johannesburg. She has also worked as a sessional lecturer in Fine Arts at Wits in 2026. In 2021, she founded That Space, an artist-run platform for art-making, teaching and community exchange.
20 years of making and moving
CV
QUALIFICATIONS
2018 PGCE teaching certificate (with distinction) at WITS University.
2014 The University of the Witwatersrand Masters (with Distinction) in Fine Art
2010 The University of Witwatersrand. Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts.
AWARDS
SAMA Award Winner 2010
The Parlotones; Push me to the floor. Winner MK Award for Best Music Video 2010 Winner SAMA Award for Best Music Video 2010 Directed by Jolyon Ellis and Francis Gavin Produced & Edited by Francis Gavin Performance Coach Janine King Featuring Tandi Meikle and Kahn Morbee DoP Garreth Fradgley Production Manager Janine King. Production Design by Tamara Osso, Ruth Rom & Robin de Jager.
Sasol New Signatures Finalist 2009
2023
MAKING GRASS Solo exhibition curated by Ame Bell. David Krut Projects, 142 Parkwood Rd Jan Smuts Ave, Johannesburg.
TAF PAPER Curated by TAF exhibition in Cape Town in February.
EUROPEAN CULTURAL ACADEMY SCHOLARSHIP Venice, Italy.
REDFEST ARTS FESTIVAL Curated by Michael Smith and Lucy Mylchreest. Redhill School, Johannesburg.
FOXWOOD FEES Curated by Isabella Mostert. 13 5th Street, Houghton Estate, Johannesburg
2022
PAPERWORK Curated by Forms Gallery in collaboration with the Plett Arts Festival, David Krut arts resource, verso editions and art gallery Plett. Plettenberg Bay.
LOUDSPEAKERS Curated by Origin Art. Gallery 1, Keyes Avenue, Rosebank.
RESHAPE 22: Future Art Histories. Curated by Latitudes and ANNA. Latitudes Online.
TURBINE ART FAIR Curated by Anthea Buys from FORMS Gallery. 199 Oxford Rd, Rosebank. Johannesburg.
ARTIVISM Curated by Kim Lieberman. Redfest Arts Festival, Redhill School, Johannesburg.
THE PARADISE OF NORMALITY Solo exhibition by Tamara Osso. Curated by Lizamore & Associates. Rosebank Fire Station.
2021
RMB TALENT UNLOCKED EXHIBITION Curated by Londi Modiko. Circa Gallery, Johannesburg.
SEMPITERNAL SUMMER Curated by Teresa Lizamore & Associates. Teresa Lizamore & Associates Gallery, Fairlands.
Established that. space; an art making and teaching studio in Morningside.
Group Exhibitions
2020 THE LOCKDOWN COLLECTION AUCTION IN PARTNERSHIP WITH LATITUDES ONLINE. All proceeds from Open Call Collection will go to the participating artists, the Vulnerable Artist Fund and Latitudes Outreach. https://latitudes.online/auctions.html
2019 Redfest Arts Festival. Curated by Marisa Mare. Redhill School, Johannesburg. produced by Tamara Osso.
2018 Opposing Moments. Curated by Kalashnikovv Gallery. Graham’s Fine Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
2017 Tutu in collaboration with Moving into Dance Mophatong. Produced, directed and written by Tamara Osso. Dance Umbrella, WITS Theatre, Johannesburg.
POP-UP Art Exhibition. Curated by Beth Van Heerden and the FirstRand Art Committee in collaboration with Assemblage and Artist Proof Studio. Art@First, Sandton.
The Emerging Painters exhibition titled Touch. Curated by Jessica Webster in collaboration with Amber-Jade Geldenhuys and MC Roodt at The Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2016 The Craftsmen’s Ship Building Launch in collaboration with Counterspace, Moving into Dance Mophatong and Stephen Hobbs. Choreographed by Tamara Osso. Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg.
Who’s in that space? Curated by Tamara Osso. That Space, Newtown, Johannesburg.
“I See You…Me”. Curated by Sally Shorkend. SoMa Art + Space, Maboneng, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015 The Last Supper. An interactive sculpture with performance by Gina Kraft. Goethe On Main. Maboneng, Johannesburg.
2014 Artist vs. Artist; a Wits Masters exhibition by Tamara Osso. The Substation WSOA. Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Expressions Of Freedom. Curated by Kalashnikovv Gallery in association with Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival Space. Women’s Jail Exhibition Space at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg.
2013 Et al. Curated by Brendan Copestake and Neil Nieuwoudt. NIROXprojects, Arts on Main, Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg
2012 Process this/ . UCT/WITS Masters Exchange Exhibition. Michaelis Galleries at the University of Cape Town.
2011 The Joburg Fringe: Art of Assemblage. Curated by Mandy Johnston. Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
I Am Not You. Curated by Murray Turpin was a multimedia exhibition. The Mills, Carr Street in Newtown
David Krut, produced a series of monotypes at the David Krut Workshop at Arts on Main, Maboneng Precinct, Johannesburg.
The Painter’s Show. Curated by Satellite Spaces/ The Untitled Gallery. Main Street Life, Johannesburg.
2010 Ke Ai presents Popo.Me Exhibition in collaboration with Deconstruction Events. 70 Juta the new Design Quarter Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Jan Blohm: Tangerine. Music video produced, directed & edited by Francis Gavin, DoP Garreth Fradgley Featuring Taryn Sudding, Matias Dias, Nurit Graaf & Francis Gavin. Production Design: Tamara Osso & Quinton Williams Wardrobe & Make-Up: Tandi Meikle
The Black Hotels: No Sign of Science. Music video produced, directed, shot and edited by Francis Gavin Featuring Tamara Osso and Clive Gilson. Art Direction by Tamara Osso
2009 Sasol New Signatures. Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria.
Virtually Real. Undergraduate Exhibition. WSOA Sub-station, Johannesburg.
2007-8 Beyond the Line. Curated by Katrin von Maltzahn in collaboration with WITS University. The Goethe Institute, Johannesburg.
The Martienssen Prize finalist exhibition. 2008. WITS University, Johannesburg.
2004 – 2006 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. Toured with the company for over a year at Artscape Theatre, Cape Town. The State Theatre, Pretoria.The Grand Theatre, Shanghai, Tianqiao Performance Center, Beijing and Asia World Arena Hong Kong.
Awards & Other Achievements
2002 – 2005 Professional Ballet and contemporary dancer. Worked under the direction of Adele Blank for FreeFlight Contemporary Dance Company performing numerous pieces in various theatres. Notable performances include Windows with Ballet Theatre African under the direction of Martin Shonberg. Touring extensively around South Africa performing at KKNK and Grahamstown Festivals and performing Blood Wedding at the Civic Theatre Johannesburg with La Rosa Spanish Dance Company.
2001 – 2002 Danced in numerous performances at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town and toured The Garden Route as part of a Rotary fundraising initiative performing in a variety of Classical Excerpts, as well as African Dance pieces choreographed by Maxwell Xholani.
1998-2000 Principal dancer with the Johannesburg Youth Ballet – danced the lead role in excerpts from the Ballet’s Le Corsaire, Sleeping Beauty and Pas de Fiancé. Contemporary works directed by Robyn Orlan and Tanya Futter.