Kim Gurney

Kim Gurney (PhD) is a writer, researcher and visual artist based in Cape Town, South Africa. This website shares some of her interdisciplinary practice.

Kim is the author of four non-fiction books emblematic of her research curiosities, linking contemporary art to public space and city futures. They are: ‘Flipside: The Inadvertent Archive (iwalewabooks: Johannesburg & Lagos); Panya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africa (Motto: Berlin & Lausanne); August House is Dead, Long Live August House! The Story of a Johannesburg Atelier (Fourthwall: Johannesburg); & The Art of Public Space: Curating and Re-imagining the Ephemeral City (Palgrave Macmillan: London).

Kim favours creative non-fiction and long-form reportage in her writing and often seeks out backstage narratives, inflected by a former life as a journalist. She is widely published across genres and platforms, with over two decades of writing and editing experience. Increasingly, she approaches publishing as artistic practice. Her art engages disappearances of different kinds and makes restorative gestures - via studio work, public space activations and curatorial collaborations.