Johann Louw

As one of the nation’s pre-eminent painters, Johann Louw’s oeuvre spans over two particularly politically charged decades in South Africa’s history. Known primarily as a painter, he also produces expressive drawings and graphic works that have been shown extensively, both locally and abroad. Louw’s painted figures are caught in desolate and non-descript terrains, giving shape to scenes that are paradoxical and perturbed. Ambiguous subjects inhibit starkly opposing fragments of the picture plane, as clear physical breaches echo internal or experiential disparities. The artist’s distinctively subdued palette further reflects a sense of disquiet; stripping his scenes bare, purging them of colour, comfort and revealing the “interior space where cultural and societal restraints are erased”.

South African, b. 1965, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa, based in Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.

Submitted by SMAC