Meet Artist Johann Louw

This survey show of Johann Louw’s work at the gallery will guide a conversation between this renowned artist and art dealer Baylon Sandri, who has been working with the artist for an extensive period. It is expected to be a lively and informative experience. 

Louw's extensive body of work, rooted in an evocative engagement with the human condition, aligns seamlessly with the speculative themes of Other Worlding. His paintings and drawings, often oscillating between figuration and abstraction, explore psychological and existential narratives that blur the boundaries between past and present, memory and reality. 

Johann Louw was born in Belville and lives in Cape Town. He graduated from Stellenbosch University in 1992 with a master's in Fine Art. While he is best known as a figurative painter of people occupying spaces, the content of his paintings is echoed in his prints. He works with a restricted range of colour, creating images concerned with states of being. Louw masterfully constructs emotive and psychological tension in his works, suggesting menace and intrigue. In 2007, Louw was recognised by a mid-career touring retrospective exhibition presented by the Sanlam Art Collection. He was selected to participate in Linguaggi del Mondo: Languages of the World, an official collateral exhibition to the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, and in 2010 he exhibited at the 4th Beijing International Art Biennale in China and the Sabbionetta Biennale for Contemporary Art in Italy.

Since 2010, Louw has participated in several residencies including the Artist in Residence, Le Atelier Pons in Paris, and has received numerous prestigious awards including The Ampersand Foundation Fellowship Award and Residency in New York in 2014. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Turkey and Mexico and extensively in South Africa, including most recently on the Ampersand Foundation Award 21 Years Celebration Exhibition at the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2019 and the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in 2020. - information source Strauss & Co.