Christiaan Conradie (South Africa)

Christiaan Conradie experiences and focuses on concrete spheres within the arts. He draws insiration from the age-old pictoral techniques of Rubens and Rembrandt, to the abstraction of Cy Twomby and of conceptual art. He proposes, therefore, an interesting diversity and multiplicity in his pieces, but whose identity and authenticity is clear and defined.There is no other Conradie. Inspired by the loose, fast and dynamic brushstrokes of Rubens, he picks up on the carnal and dionysian exuberance of the bodies, the paint an ode to the human body. In addition, he is inspired by the capturing of living bodies in solitude and complete isolation as demonstrated in the works of Rembrandt. An isolation that breaks with the emerging world of his time. Conradie uses this device, in some way, to create an intimate space of reflection, in front of the complexities that inhabit this world, his figures are presented alone, isolated, intimate and alive. Evident too, are echoes from the works of Twombly in the way that multiple layers and textures are imposed one on top of the other, a type of caligraphic, covert staining of the working surface.

In so doing, Conradie establishes a concrete dialogue between his favourite artists and appropriates those aspects which serve as a support from which to generate his pieces. Conradie considers his work as a space in which he is able to achieve a communion between the diversly dichotomous aspects of life. In this way, he invites an extreme and intimate comtemplation of the characters that appear in his works of art, executed with precision and patience, demonstrating the rational and measured aspect of the artists’ work. He paints these figures in silent and inmoveable spaces, that invite reflection. But at the same time, these figures painted with impactful realism, appear dismembered, incomplete, textured and sensitively rendered. In this way, he demonstrates the limits of the body and its weaknesses. He searches for, paints, and re-creates certain personalities that embody time, carnal, a body that expresses, an abject body, fragmented, desmembered. His subjects are infinite beings. Themes of ageing and of death are addressed. He plays with the (a)temporality of his work, they are never contextualised within a specific time or space.

However, time is ‘felt’, it weighs. It weighs with it’s body and skin, and with its objects, and lives with its colours and its textures. Conradie imagines the objective of what he wants to achieve, and doesn’t rest until he finds the materials neccessary in order for him to generate the emotions that he aims to awaken. His art is conceived as though it were a bridge, that unites two worlds that at first, seem contrary, but which in communion reveal a vitality. Reason and sensitivity. Formally he uses oil, watercolour, objects and lights amongst other materials. Devices that allow him to transit between the two worlds, the rational and the intuitive. In this space, between these two concepts, is where Christiaan’s creation is concentrated. He surrounds his subjects with a very particular aesthetic. The paint, with its plasticity, with its textures, its uncertain forms, its irregularities, its intensity, breaks free from the linear rational world, transporting one to the world of emotions. His paintings are full of dichotomous spaces.

Aged subjects, with folkloric components, serenity and violence, order and chaos, rationality and insanity, hope and despair. Christiaan wages in this game of contradictions, and in it a vitality is borne through the conjunction of both approaches. This vitality derived from his work is accompanied by a majestic and authentic aesthetic impact. Currently, Christiaan finds himself working on a series of works inspired by his recent prolonged stay in Mexico. After having lived there for a little over three years, he is in the midst of working through this confrontation of multiple realities. Mexico has captured his imagination aesthetically as much as it has emotionally. Mexico, to his artistic sensibilities emerges as a space both floral and bloody, spiritual and of the earth. His current proposal is to re-signify the symbols, fragments and sensations, of this journey and to adapt them in his pieces. Mexico has spontaneously and intuitively integrated itself into his work. The subjects present in his paintings cohabit with this new expression where a potent aesthetic flourishes.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2017

Solo at gallery 55Bellechasse (Paris, France)

2016

Retrospective exhibition, Galerie 55Bellechasse (Paris, France)

2015

RVCA Gallery (San Francisco, USA)

2014

Celaya Brothers Gallery, ´This is the wind and this is the breeze´ (México City, Mexico)

Rust en Vrede Gallery, ‘Love before breakfast’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

2012

Casa Verdi, ‘Los otros y Anne’ (Barcelona, Spain)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018

Market Art Design (New York, USA)

Art New York (New York, USA)

Art Market San Francisco (San Francisco, USA)

Volta (New York, USA)

Art Palm Beach (Palm Beach, USA)

2017

Palm Beach (Miami, USA)Art Miami (Miami, USA)

Sofa Chicago (Chicago, USA)

YIA Art Fair (Paris, France)

Cube Art Fair Brussels (Brussels, Belgium)

Contemporary Istanbul (Istanbul, Turkey)

Art market Hamptons (Hamptons, USA)

Art Salzburg (Salzburg, Austria)

2016

The Solo Project (Basel, Switzerland)

Scope New-York (NY, USA)

Art Wynwood (Miami, USA)

Art PalmBeach (Miami, USA)

2015

Context (Miami, USA)

YIA Art Fair (Paris, France)

Art Silicon Valley (San Francisco, USA)

Art Miami NY (New-York, USA)

SurfCity Festival (Barcelona, Spain)

2014

Group Show, Casa Lamm (Mexico City, Mexico)

Pig Me Auction (Mexico City, Mexico)

2013

Auction, Traeger y Pinto (México City, Mexico)

Galeria JLS (Valle Bravo, Mexico)

Myl Arte Contemopráneo, ‘Codigos Animalistas’ (México City, Mexico)

White Spider, ‘Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction’ (México City, Mexico)

Salon 91, ‘Home is wherever I´m with you’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

2012

Salon 91, ‘I’d rather be swimming’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

A Word of Art, ‘The Space In Between’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

Salon 91, ‘Impression: Sunset’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

Spencer Street Studios, ‘A collection of works’  (Cape Town, South Africa)

Tjing Tjing Exchange, ‘A group show’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

Searle Street Post, ‘Last Minute’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

2010

Group Show, Painting and Performance (Riebeeck Kasteel, South Africa)

Group Show, Wessel Snyman Creative (Cape Town, South Africa)

Principal Painter in Andrew Putter’s ‘Sketch Assembly 1’ (Cape Town, South Africa)

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