ARTIST BIO

Andrea du Plessis is a Cape Town-based, South African painter born in 1980 whose work engages with contemporary surrealism and new romantic interpretations of landscape, drawing on visionary and ecological themes.

Du Plessis holds a Cum Laude degree in Multimedia Digital Visual Arts and maintains an ongoing interest in new media as an expanded dimension to her practice. As the 2021 winner of the prestigious Sasol New Signatures Award, South Africa’s leading award for emerging artists, she has exhibited in both local and international exhibitions. Her work is held in private and institutional collections and featured in both local and international publications.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I began making art out of a desire to depict nature as a living, intelligent, and healing presence. My practice reflects personal experiences of healing and transformation, shaped in part through equine therapy. Influenced by Romantic notions of the sublime, pantheistic beliefs, and a lifelong connection with horses and animals, I create symbolic environments where mythic and ecological narratives unfold. Horses appear as complex, layered symbols within these spaces, guiding viewers through terrains that feel both ancient and otherworldly. Through themes of inner alchemy, and transcendence, I use painting as a means to process personal change and to imagine speculative futures where humans and animals exist harmoniously within shared ecosystems.

In my multimedia practice I currently focus primarily on highly detailed oil painting, drawing on classical painting techniques inspired by the Old Masters. Alongside painting, I maintain an interest in new media, using technologies such as augmented and virtual reality in certain projects to create immersive extensions of the work.

My paintings depict animals and figures moving through symbolic environments that exist at the threshold between classical landscape traditions and contemporary surreal imagery. These imagined environments invite viewers to step into worlds where the boundaries between species dissolve and nature is experienced as a sacred presence. By juxtaposing elements of nature and technology, the work explores tensions between the natural and the artificial while expressing a deeper yearning for balance, healing, and harmony.

Contact info:

Email: admin@andreadp.co.za