Featured Artist
Louis Minnaar
South Africa
Grand Prize Award Recipient
Purchase Award Recipient
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Louis Minnaar
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About
Louis Minnaar
Practicing as a fine artist from Pretoria, South Africa, Louis Minnaar has held five solo exhibitions and participated in numerous group shows both locally and internationally. Trained in painting, sculpture, and printmaking, Minnaar's practice has evolved to focus on the use of found objects and materials. His work embraces uncertainty and spontaneity, moving away from traditional techniques and precision in favor of a raw, explorative process. Working intuitively, Minnaar creates with immediacy and intensity, aiming for maximum visual impact through unpremeditated composition and material experimentation.
Artist Statement
Somewhere in 2022, I began creating work with the intention of abandoning formal art-making techniques and embracing uncertainty, impulsiveness, and randomness. This rebellion came from the need to free myself from the contrived and obsessive way I have approached art over the last 2 decades. I have an urge to create art that
has less to do with my flawed perception of what art should be, my obsession with detail and perfection, and more to do with raw artistic expression.
While I couldn't fully surrender control and detach from the art-making process as I knew it, simply intending to adopt uncertainty and impulsiveness as concepts altered my approach, making it feel more authentic and true to myself. Having primarily focused on meticulous craftsmanship throughout my career, working with found objects liberated me from this constraint, enabling me to concentrate on broader aspects like composition and overall visual impact. Utilising pre-existing materials provided a starting point for ruthless editing and reassembling matter into new things.
Embodying a kind of culprit, curating aesthetic accidents is a concept that drove a lot of my process. Another was that of being like a toddler playing in his dad’s garage, randomly finding items and assembling them into what was found to be immediately interesting. The point was to make unpremeditated art in a completely explorative manner with no preparation and without second-guessing what the outcome may be. My intention is to create in the same way that a hungover person desperately assembles a ham and mayo sandwich: with much greed and little patience. This approach has proven to be incredibly satisfying.
Louis Minnaar is a fine artist from Pretoria, South Africa. He has had five solo exhibitions locally and has participated in numerous group exhibitions both locally and abroad. With a background in painting, sculpture, and printmaking, Minnaar now focuses on using found objects and materials as his medium. He aims to embrace uncertainty and randomness in his work, moving away from formal techniques and meticulous craftsmanship. He follows an explorative and unpremeditated approach, creating impulsively and seeking out maximum visual impact.
PAST EXHIBITIONS
2025
Participation in Aesthetica Art Prize 2025, NY USA: Long Listed Finalist
2024
Chromatic Photography Awards 2024 (Honourable Mention Award)
Loneliness and Poetics – 2024 London Contemporary Art Review
Exhibition. (Nomination Award)
Bath Open Art Prize - Group show, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, England.
No Dead Artists - Group show, Ferrara Showman Gallery, New Orleans,
USA.
2022
Breathing Room - 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town.
2021
Poster Series - Brunch, Stanley 44, JHB
Re-Form Group show, The Gallery, Stanley 44, JHB
1XRun Group show - Detroit
2019
2K.2 'untitled'- group show at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB
I know I don't know / But what if we're wrong? - group show at No End
Contemporary Gallery, JHB
2018
Town, 2018
Hello Darkness, My Old Friend. Solo Exhibition at 99Loop Gallery, Cape
2017
HAIL MARY! Solo Exhibition at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB
Sixteen Hundred at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB2016
FifteenHundred at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB
Fotostaatmasjien Group show at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB
72 Hours Group show at at No End Contemporary Gallery, JHB
Repeating Patterns: Back to Basics
2015
Bright Night Group Exhibition, MOAD, Maboneng
A is for Apocalypse, Z is for Zombies - 2 Man show at Kalashikov Gallery,
JHB
2012
Group exhibition "Locals Only" with Skullboy, Durban, Johannesburge
The River Exhibition with Maaike bakker at Salon91, Capetown
Group Exhibition at Wolves, JHB entitled “Alphabet”
2010
Two man show “Muggers” with Gerhard Uys at +27 Design café, PTA
Verb poster show (city slickers) at the Wessel Snyman Gallery, Capetown
Toffie poster show at the Toffie pop culture festival, Capetown “Nothing is
everything” – Group show at wordofart, Capetown Addidas tshirt show
“celebrate originality”, Capetown
Group exhibition at the bin, Capetown
2009
Solo Exhibition “Originale” at Salon91, Cape Town
Solo Exhibition “Originale 002” at +27 Design café, PTA
Justified Jotting 2- group exhibition at Magpie Gallery.
City slickers- group exhibition at +27 Design café, PTA
2008
Participation in Bigwood 2, group exhibition at Artspace, Durban +
Belgium 2009)
Justified Jotting- group exhibition at Magpie Gallery. Video and sound
installations.
Art Vespa 2008.
Levis/aKING t-shirt exhibition at KUNST HOUSE, Cape town.
2007
Opening exhibition at The Gallery in Pretoria "van Boerekitch en ander
dinge" –group show at KKNK'07.
Group exhibition entitled "meter cubed" at August House
Group exhibition with Love and Hate entitled “the walls” at Canned
Applause Record StoreGroup exhibition (gallery opening) at the Secret Gallery along with Lionel
Smit, Diek Grobler etc...
Sasol New Signatures 2007.
“SA+UK=” group exhibition, Dalston Lane café, London.
Art Vespa 2007.
Open Lab.02 group exhibition at designquarter.
2006
Participation: “40x 40” –group show at the KKnK.
Solo exhibition at the Project Room, Gordart Gallery entitled “circus”.
Group show along with 26 artists entitled “new suburbia” with Love and
Hate at Platform on eighteenth
Works chosen for Gordon Froud’s young curator show at Aardklop.
Group show at Moja Modern entitled "the Inevitable" with Love and Hate
2005
Installation collaboration with Paul Loynes (Senyol) at Dirt, Cape town
(January)
Group show “functional” at Gordart gallery
“Porn again” at Merely Mortal
Works selected for Ekurhuleni fine art awards Works selected Sasol new
signatures.
“The dreamtime persistence”. 2 man exhibition with Colin O’mara Davis at
Betty’s Tea Room
2004
Ekurhuleni fine arts awards: special Mention award
Sasol New Signatures
52weeks52works participation (52.co.za)
Group exhibition at Merely Mortal (cut-out installation)
3 Man exhibition at Secret Gallery, PTA, entitled “episode.eternity”
(Audrey Anderson, Colin O’mara Davis)
10x10 at Gordart, Melville
2001
Group exhibition, Bramley gallery (Marcel Waldeck, Chris le Roux, Adele
Botha)
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