Frances Goodman

SPECTA Gallery

Frances Goodman

Viewing Room

Frances Goodman is an interdisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg who works with materials linked to fashion and the beauty industry, which includes acrylic nails, false eyelashes, sequins, and needlework. Her work explores femininity, identity, and self-presentation in both social and virtual spaces. Through glossy, sensual sculptures and installations, she examines beauty ideals, consumer culture, and the commodification of identity. A key aspect of her practice is the contrast between urgent contemporary themes and slow, repetitive crafting processes that encourage deeper reflection.

fra nirox instagram: For this Viewing Room we’re focusing on Goodman’s new pill quilt series that was created during her NIROX residency. The works reimagine quilting as a sculptural language rather than a domestic covering, using discarded costume materials and meticulous stitching techniques, and enlarged fragments of everyday objects are translated into fabric constructions that appear solid from a distance but reveal their delicate, labour-intensive structure up close.

TBC, 2025, installation view

”I began developing quilt-based works at the end of last year, in which the quilt is reimagined as a sculptural language rather than a domestic covering. Drawing on techniques learned from a master quilter, I approach stitching as a method of constructing illusion. Working from enlarged fragments of everyday objects, most recently the popped blister pack of a pill packet, I isolate forms and translate them into pieced fabric components. Cut from discarded costume materials and assembled through meticulous stitching, these fragments resolve into hyperreal objectsthat oscillate between solidity and fragility. At a distance, the works read as material optical illusions; up close, their seams, frayed edges, and labour-intensive construction reveal a delicate material truth.”
(Frances Goodman, March 2026)