Nathan Vuuren (b. Johannesburg, 1985) completed his BA in Fine Art (2007) and his Masters (2011) at the University of the Witwatersrand. His mediums of focus at present are painting, drawing and printmaking. Vuuren searches the internet and media for his source material. His painting process involves interpreting these images using carefully built up colour in a combination of glazes and layered paint. Through painting, he has created an imagined personal world that mines its narratives from popular culture.
The reference material for Vuuren’s recent series of paintings are gleaned from social media. Vuuren is obsessed with paintings and painting, for this series of work he had begun each canvas with a monochromatic base image as a means to ground the painting in the viewers eye, creating moments of recognition, he then begins to add painterly abstract intrusions, lines, splashes of paint and glazes of colour as well as using non traditional mediums such as markers or spray-paint. He seeks to make unpredictable and new arrangements using these visual devices or interventions calling them ‘charged fragments’, with the intention of creating visual discord together with the underlying image.
“These images are less about narrative or identity and more about image construction. I’m interested in painting multiple figures and for this particular body of work I sought out images that depict mass ecstasy or what I would call a kind of secular worship. While I am always thinking about popular culture, consumerism and excess when selecting images to paint, most important to me is that I create an image that appeals to me.” – N. Vuuren
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2019 Rabble Rouser – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2019 Supermoon – 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2017 Seeing the Future – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2016 Fade Away with Setlamorago Mashilo – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2011 A Moment of Irrationality Final Masters Exhibition – WITS Substation Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
Selected Group Exhibitions & Projects
2019 Winter Salon 2019 – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2019 SculptX – Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, SA
2018 Memento Mori – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2018 A Contemporary Showcase – Graham’s Fine Art Gallery & Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2018 Untitled 6.99 – 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2018 2k – NO END Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2017 Super Salon II – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2017 Untitled 5.99 – 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2017 Occupy II – Fried Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria and Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2017 All the Voices – Fried Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria and NO END Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2017 Sixteen Hundred – NO END Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2016 From Whence They Came – Smith Studio Gallery, Cape Town and Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2016 Super Salon – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2016 72 Hours – NO END Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2016 Fifteen Hundred – NO END Contemporary Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2015 Death of the Old – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2015 Occupy Room I – Fried Contemporary, Pretoria and Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2015 Cross- Sections – Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2014 Pilgrim – Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg, SA
2014 Degrees of Separation – ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2013 Collaborations – Assemblage, Johannesburg, SA
2011 The Painter’s Show – Our Space Main Street Life, Johannesburg, SA
2011 L’Atelier Exhibition – ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2008 L’Atelier Exhibition – ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
2008 Sites of Memory – The Thompson Art Gallery, Johannesburg, SA
Art Fairs
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Johannesburg, SA (2015, 2018)
RMB Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, SA (2015 – 2016, 2019)
Press
2016 Shuman, E. One to Watch, House & Garden [online] (published Nov 17, 2016)
