Chris Soal (b. 1994) is an award-winning, emerging South African artist. Soal’s studio-based practice is sculptural in its output, working with objects and materials in ways which show not only a conceptual engagement with the contexts and histories of the objects, but that also re-enforce the body as a site for knowledge reception and production. Soal’s works seek to make a poetic statement through the simplest of means, engaging the viewer’s spatial awareness and perception while challenging societal assumptions of value. Through his use of discarded and mundane ephemera, such as toothpicks and bottle caps, along with concrete, rebar, electric fencing cable and other industrial materials, Soal’s work intuitively develops the familiar to the point of the uncanny. Soal’s works can be considered as a social abstraction that is deeply rooted and reflective of having grown up in Johannesburg, South Africa. Specifically, the artist’s work with beer bottle caps explore the legacy of gold mining in the city, with the illusory concavities and convexities of his spiralled wall pieces becoming suggestive of the appearance and disappearance of mine dumps and sinkholes. Foregrounding pressing ecological concerns, the artist’s works with toothpicks primarily consider and seek to expose the paradoxical relationship humankind has with nature, that of simultaneous dependence and domination. In 2017, Soal graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts (Hons) at the University of Witwatersrand. He was awarded the PPC Imaginarium Award in 2018, alongside being named the winner of the Sculpture category. He has been awarded residencies by the South African Foundation of Contemporary Art, taking place in Knysna, South Africa, by the RAW Material Company in Dakar, Senegal, and the Residenza Roma by Montoro12 in 2019. Recently Soal has held four solo exhibitions Sleight and Substance (2021); Montoro12 Gallery, Brussels; Elegy (2021), Nirox foundation, The Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg; As Above so Below (2021) and Field of Vision (2019) at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town. He has also exhibited in group shows at institutions such as the Iziko National Museum (2020), FRAC MECA, Bordeux (2019), Wits Art Museum (2017) and Stellenbosch University Museum (2018). Recently Soal has held three group exhibitions Witness (2021), Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami; Margin of Errors (2021), Nirox Sculpture Park, The Cradle of Humankind, Johannesburg; Restudio (2021) Cunningham Contemporary Johannesburg. Recent projects include Soal’s collaboration with Dior on the fifth edition of the Lady Dior Art Bag. Chris Soal’s work has been included in many notable private and public collections, both locally and internationally, include: The Beth Rudin DeWoody collection, (The Bunker Artspace), USA; The Braunsfelder Family Collection, Germany; Galila’s P.O.C. – The collection of Galila Barzilaï-Hollander, Belgium; The Sylt Foundation Collection, Germany; Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAFFCA), South Africa and France; Modern Art Projects, South Africa; First Rand Bank, Corporate collection, South Africa; The Department of Arts and Culture, South Africa; The Rupert Family Collection, South Africa; Barloworld Corporate Collection, South Africa; The Acker