Frances Goodman was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1975, where she currently lives and works. Goodman obtained a Masters Degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College at the University of London, United Kingdom in 2000, and holds a Laureateship from the Hoger Instituutvoor Schone Kunsten (HISK) in Antwerp, Belgium. She was a recipient of the Cecily Brown Fellowship for Outstanding Woman Artists in 2014 and took part in The Fountainhead Residency Programme in Miami, USA, in 2015; and Sundaymorning@ekwc Artist Residency in Oisterwijk, The Netherlands in 2021. In 2023, SMAC Gallery will release a publication titled Through TheGlass, Sparkling, which will focus on Goodman’s work.

Goodman presented her latest solo exhibition, Ecstacy at Galleri Spectra in Copenhagen in 2022. Further selected solo exhibitions include: Transmogrified at Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York, USA in 2021; Uneventful Days, at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, South Africa; Summer Focus: Frances Goodman, at Galleri SPECTA in Copenhagen, Denmark (2020). offstage at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, and Spit/Swallow, at Galleri SPECTA, in Copenhagen, Denmark (both in 2018); Beneath Her at Richard Taittinger in New York City, USA (2017); Degreened at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town, and Rapaciously Yours, Richard Taittinger Gallery in New York, both in 2016; Let Your Hair Down, curated by Jennie Lamensdorf as part of the (TEI) Art- in-Buildings Programme in New York, and Lick It at Walgreens Art Windows, Art Center South Florida, in Miami, USA, both in 2015; and The Sweetest Ride at TM Projects, in Geneva, Switzerland (2014).

Recent notable group exhibitions include: Art Paris with Les Filles du Calvaire; Investec Cape Town Art Fair with SMAC Gallery at Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa (2023); Women, Richard Taittinger Gallery, New York, USA and Naughty Aughties, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa both in 2022; Ubuntu, a lucid dream at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France; and Soft/Loud at Art in Buildings, Michigan, USA (2021); Matereality at Iziko South African National Gallery; MY BODY, MY RULES at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), USA (2020); I am... Contemporary Women Artists of Africa at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, DC, USA (2019); The Red Hour, curated by Simon Njamiat Dak’Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal (2018).

Her work is part of various international collections including The National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, USA and the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) Collection in Miami, USA.