After De Jongh

The paintings in this exhibition explore personal identity, cultural inheritance, and the enduring presence of history. Drawing inspiration from the painting Bloekomlaan (Avenue of Gum Trees) by the Dutch-born South African painter Tinus de Jongh (1885–1942) - an artist whose atmospheric landscapes shaped a romanticized vision of South Africa - I revisit an image deeply embedded in Afrikaner visual culture and collective memory. For this body of work, I abandoned paintbrushes to paint exclusively with my hands. Moving from the gentle touch of fingertips to the forceful momentum of fists, the hand becomes both a tool and a symbol of intimacy, resistance, and self-determination. Working in direct, visceral contact with oil paint allows me to ground myself in the present while confronting the historical and cultural legacies that continue to dictate contemporary experience. De Jongh’s symmetrical composition - a dirt road lined with eucalyptus trees leading toward a distant farmhouse - has occupied a significant place in the Afrikaner cultural imagination for over a century. For me, this idyllic motif evokes the very ideologies that underpinned apartheid and its lasting consequences. As a gay Afrikaner growing up in the shadow of this past, I continuously grapple with an inherited burden: the need to reckon with a history in which I played no active part, yet whose legacy remains inescapable.

Here, the recurring theme of the gum trees becomes a vehicle to explore belonging, inheritance, and historical responsibility. Complementing the paintings is an installation of framed De Jongh reproductions sourced from second-hand shops, arranged in hinged pairs and cradled on custom-made quilts. Together, the works in After De Jongh reflect on how inherited histories inhabit the physical body, and how the tactile act of making can become a means of reimagining identity, memory, and the possibilities of the present.

Johannesburg, August 2026