A bold new exhibition exploring femininity through excess, contradiction, and experimentation has opened at Everard Read Cape Town.
GIRLS 3000 is a collaboration between GIRLS GALLERY and Everard Read, building on the curatorial trajectory of Dominique Cheminais and Keely Shinners.
Their earlier projects include the 2024 pop-up exhibition GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS, staged over two nights at Brett Charles Seiler’s Cape Town studio, which explored femininity and its discontents through works on paper and artist-crafted garments.
In 2025, the pair followed with "GIRLS TOO: TOO MUCH, NEVER ENOUGH" at Lemkus Gallery, bringing together eighteen artists to engage more deeply with questions around identity, including what defines “girls” and who is included.
Since then, they have opened GIRLS GALLERY, a project space in central Cape Town described as ambitious and DIY, favouring maximalist, over-the-top and unconventional approaches. The space aims to produce exhibitions that are surprising and inventive, while supporting emerging artists and giving established artists room to experiment.
With GIRLS 3000, that approach is amplified. The exhibition is described as “GIRLS with the volume turned up”, with works that meditate on femininity at its edges, its contradictions, excesses, slippages, and its mess.
“This is the third edition of a series of exhibitions that we've been putting on that are centered around femininity and its discontents. It's on right now, so come before June 2 and have a look,” said Keely Shinners.
A multi-generational group of artists, working across disciplines, engages these ideas in a show that leans into the wacky, glamorous, and deliberately “too much”. Emerging and established voices share space, with experimentation and play at the centre.
Artists in the exhibition include Lady Skollie, Sanell Aggenbach, Beezy Bailey, and Brett Charles Seiler, among others.
What: GIRLS 3000 group exhibition
Where: Everard Read Cape Town
When: Thursday, May 7 to Tuesday, June 2
Gallery hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm; Saturday, 9am to 1pm
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