Frances Goodman was born in Johannesburg in 1975, where she still lives and works. After earning a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand, she completed a Master in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London in 2000 and furthered her training at HISK in Antwerp. She has taken part in numerous international residencies, including ISCP in New York, The Fountainhead Studios in Miami and the Nirox Foundation in Johannesburg.

Her practice critically engages with the cultural norms that define beauty and femininity. Goodman reworks materials traditionally associated with the feminine, such as sequins, acrylic nails and costume jewellery, transforming them into large hand-embroidered portraits, sculptures and installations. At the core of her work lies the tension between the precious and the disposable, the handmade and the synthetic, cultural meaning and passing fashion.

Recent solo exhibitions include PING! at SMAC Gallery, Cape Town (2025), Red Runs Through at Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire, Paris (2024) and Altered States at SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg (2023). She has participated in group exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Saatchi Gallery in London, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, Zeitz MOCAA and the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, as well as the Dakar Biennale and Frieze Sculpture.

In 2014 she received the Cecily Brown Fellowship and in 2024 the Bloomberg Frieze Bursary. Her work is held in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Fondazione Fiera Milano.