Lady Skollie, born Laura Windvogel, is the South African taboo-defying visual artist and Art History graduate whose practice sees her producing ‘semi-offensive’ watercolors, each reflecting personal experiences and interests from a powerful Feminist perspective. Through the use of ink, watercolors and crayons, Lady Skollie’s vibrant and playful Khoisan influenced paintings express the artists ‘identity as a woman of color, to my experience of sexual and romantic relationships, games and gender dynamics.’ The artists take on the subjects of sex, gender, the body and themes surrounding are expressed with a refreshing honestly through both her paintings and a regular podcast where sexuality and relationships are discussed.
I wasn't able to place myself within the existing art world so I created a niche for myself.
I studied Fine Arts at the University of Cape Town’s fine arts school, Michaelis, but I dropped out in my third year because I hated it and instead completed my studies in History of Art and Dutch Literature. Sex themed parties and a sex radio show, which (I now understand) were initially glorified focus/research groups for my watercolor works.
The first impulse I had to express myself was around the age of 4, when the Zorro franchise was really popping off in South Africa.
I remember being terrified of my mother realizing I had crawled underneath tables, beds, inside cupboards and covered everything's underside with wax crayon Z's of varying sizes.
Johannesburg, the city I'm currently based in, pushes you to achieve everything you've only ever thought about.
That drive can be deathly without a break but like one gallerist once said about me: "Laura is always in need of some strategic pressure."
There are three artists that resonate with me the most:
Athi Patra Ruga for his ability to immerse you into his world without even trying, Robert Mapplethorpe for his beautiful way of shocking and Mary Sibande for her sheer brilliance of identity dynamics.
I lived in an old, crumbling house in Walmer Estate in Cape Town for two years.
Walmer Estate was part of old District Six before the Apartheid government illegally evicted families in the 1950's - 60's. It will always have a soft space in my heart because of both the trauma inflicted by the evictions, since some of my own family was evicted from their homes in other parts of Cape Town, and because that is where I fell in love and lived in the first home I inhabited with my partner.