South Africa boasts a rich cultural landscape, with a diverse array of established and emerging talent. Influenced by a historically charged past, discourse often revolves around themes of identity politics, heritage, and post-colonialism. Living amidst such a complex socio-political landscape undoubtedly impacts the everyday citizen, but perhaps even more profoundly, the South African artist. This heightened sense of awareness, coupled with a willingness to learn, is what I believe makes South African artists incredibly empathetic within their practice. This culminates in intimate, thought-provoking artworks imbued with varying meanings. The list below highlights 10 female South African artists who are at the forefront of abstraction:
1.Yolanda Mazwana
Yolanda Mazwana (1996) is a self- taught artist who addresses themes around mental illness, phobias, popular culture, and relationships. Mazwana states:
“I paint unusual formative characters to connect the dots about the questions around the female body, and what it goes through. I vent about the vulnerabilities of the mind, the emotions, the reproductive system and how our physical and physiological responses to trauma affect us."
Her works highlight the notion of concealment: do we safeguard our innermost thoughts for healing and protection or do we simply enjoy holding onto a familiar pain? The amoeba like bodily forms evoke a haunting impression on the viewer. The figures lay dormant, their gaze empty and filled with a chilling sense of longing, as if they were yearning for a past they could never reclaim.
2. Nabeeha Mohamed
Nabeeha Mohamed (1988) completed her BAFA in 2011 at the Michaelis School of Fine Art with a major in painting. Her work focuses on the contradictions of identity and class privilege in post-Apartheid South Africa. She offers a playful critique of the relationship between the capitalist economy and class privilege through vibrant colour choice and unique subject matter portrayal.
Through her use of meticulous detailing within the flower/human figures she showcases the symbolic entanglement between nature and humanity. The works have an undeniable strangeness to them, however the softness in the portrayal balances this to create a romantic pictorial harmony. Bridging the gap between traditionalism and modernity. Mohamed showcases the intersection of culture, faith, and personal expression.
3. Jeanne Hoffman
Jeanne Hoffman (1978) explores the emotional and socio-cultural dimensions of place. Hoffman's paintings serve as a place of refuge for the viewer, drawing ones attention towards the subtlety in mark making and colour choice. The artist seeks to highlight the ineffable by recreating multiple viewpoints of fragmented moments. Hoffman states:
“There is a direct correlation between travelling across a landscape and the path of a graphic mark that transforms a blank page into an imaginary space.”
The artist thus reveals poetic landscapes which tell stories of introspection and juxtaposition.
4. Laurinda Belcher
Laurinda Belcher (1987) currently lives & works in Paarl, South Africa. Her practice is inspired by the playful nature of her inner child, leading to an intuitive production process. Belcher holds a deep fascination within psychology, specifically how childhood trauma shapes our understanding of the world. Her works explore this narrative, often culminating in a delicate portrayal of intimacy. Aiming to tap into covert human psyche, she explores her innermost thoughts and feelings in a nuanced manner which leaves the viewer in a contemplative realm. Belcher states:
"As a person, I try to be aware of what I can contribute and how to create ways or experiences to communicate and feel connection."
5. Lungiswa Gqunta
Lungiswa Gqunta (1990) predominantly works in sculpture, installation, performance and printmaking. Through multi sensory installations Gqunta seeks to highlight the complex cultural political landscape of post - colonial South Africa. Specifically highlighting the lasting social implications and imbalances that persist. The artist focuses on unveiling different forms of violence and systematic inequality.
In the work below, Gqunta transforms the room; changing the space into a new environment whereby historical past and present meet. Her multi media approach enhances the balance between beauty, fragility and brutality in a tangible manner. It allows the viewer the opportunity to physically engage with the piece, illuminating an active learning approach towards reparative aesthetics. As the clay breaks, the work continually evolves and becomes a living moment in time. This symbolic action, seeks to highlight how the faith and belief systems of Black ancestors as spaces of knowledge and information has been discredited as non - existent.
6. Anico Mostert
Anico Mostert (1995) is a multi-disciplinary artist and printmaker. Graduating from the Michaelis school of Fine Art with a major in painting, Mostert seeks to re - imagine quiet moments of the everyday. Her process is intuitively driven, acting as a form of self discovery. Her vivid colours illuminate the characters as they seek to find their place on the canvas.
The works contain an eerie sense of familiarity, like memories half-remembered from dreams, intertwining surrealist aspects with our shared experiences of everyday encounters and feelings. Within the intricate brushstrokes and carefully depicted forms, one can discern echoes of mundane moments imbued with a mystical aura, as if the artist has tapped into the collective unconscious to reveal the hidden beauty and strangeness lurking beneath the surface of the ordinary.
When titling her works, Mostert imagines what the characters could say when they speak - knowing this, adds a fondness to the viewing experience.
7. Sahlah Davids
By combining various research streams with her artistic practice Sahlah Davids (1998) seeks to create community city spaces which foreground human and ecological needs. She achieves this by manipulating textiles, needlework and upholstery to examine her own heritage. This approach came to Davids when learning the trades of the Cape Muslim community (specifically the elders within her family). The forms themselves appear abstract, allowing them to take a life of their own and grow organically.
Through the material nature of her work, it is imbued with personal as well as generational memories. This foregrounds her own understanding of politics, tradition, spirituality and religion.
8. Mary Visser
Mary Visser, born in 1971, pursued her education in drawing and painting at Rhodes University in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown), graduating in 1992. Later, in 2013, she achieved a Postgraduate Diploma in Art with distinction from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.
Her work highlights key elements of the abstract genre; paying close attention to composition, layering, mark making and colour choice. The works are brimming with movement; alluding to a sense of enigmatic chaos. The marks leap off the canvas into their own realm, unbothered by the parameters of time and space.
9.Rosie Mudge
Rosie Mudge (1988) is a multi disciplinary artist, focusing on gender, materiality and intimacy. She seeks to challenge the male dominated realm of minimalism by incorporating traditionally gendered materials such as car paint, glitter and nail polish. Through the incredibly laborious production process, involving automotive paint and an intensive layering process, Mudge challenges the feminized association of glitter through abstraction.
Her work instantly transports the viewer into a new world as we are caught between a moment of movement and stillness. The varying colour gradients gently embrace you, allowing a sense of calm and security to wash over whilst the ambiguity of the works conjure up a hazy dream like impression. Their shimmer alludes to long lost memories; a distant reminder of childhood innocence and warmth.
10. Georgina Gratrix
Georgina Gratrix (1982) grew up in Durban, South Africa. She studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, and graduated in 2005, specializing in painting. She was recently awarded the Discovery Prize at the 50th Anniversary edition of Art Brussels, for her presentation with SMAC Gallery.
Her practice focuses on still lifes with highly saturated colour palettes and expressive expressions. As seen in "Juntos", Gratrix favours creating whimsical compositions that exude energy and playfulness. Her distinctive style often blends elements of pop culture, personal narrative, and humour, captivating viewers with its dynamic and irreverent approach to contemporary art. By working with thickly applied impasto surfaces, it allows Gratrix to constantly revisit the pieces with an open dialogue.
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