Liza Essers

Director, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg/Cape Town/London

In 2008, at the age of 34, Liza Essers became the owner and director of Goodman Gallery – the pre-eminent commercial art gallery in South Africa, founded four decades previously. Since then, Essers has built on the gallery’s long-standing reputation for inclusivity and social engagement while also broadening its global outlook. Its growing roster of international artists strikes a balance between established names such as Alfredo Jaar, Shirin Neshat and Hank Willis Thomas as well as younger, emerging figures – particularly women artists from the continent of Africa and its diaspora. In December 2019, Essers took a significant step in expanding the international presence of the gallery, which has spaces in Johannesburg and Cape Town, with the opening of a third site in Mayfair in London. Before taking up the helm at Goodman, Essers worked as an independent dealer and art adviser.

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