Bio 

Kim Gurney is a writer, visual artist and researcher who is based in Cape Town, South Africa. 

​

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

​

Kim’s writing, which crosses genre but favours long-form creative non-fiction, is inflected by a former life as a journalist and News Editor and often seeks out backstage narratives. She is widely published in different genres and international platforms. Her artistic practice engages disappearances of different kinds and makes restorative gestures, while collaborating with artists curatorially. 

​

Kim holds four advanced degrees: PhD (University of Cape Town), BA Fine Art with Distinction in Discourse of Art (Michaelis, UCT), MA in International Journalism (City St George's, Univ of London), and B.Journ with Distinction (Rhodes). She works at The Centre for Humanities Research, an interdisciplinary advanced research hub at the University of the Western Cape, and has held prior long-term research affiliations with University of Cape Town’s African Centre for Cities, and University of Johannesburg’s VIAD (Visual Identities in Art & Design) Research Centre.