Jonathan vd Walt

Jonathan van der Walt (b. 1991) is a Gqeberha-based visual artist, curator, and academic whose interdisciplinary practice merges traditional and digital sculptural techniques to explore contemporary South African identity. He holds a Master’s degree in Fine Art Sculpture from Nelson Mandela University, where he lectures in Visual Arts and manages the Bird Street Gallery and the School of Visual and Performing Arts’ 3D Printing Lab. He is also a member of the South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH) and serves on the board of ArtEC, supporting emerging artists in the Eastern Cape.

Jonathan’s recent work critically examines contemporary white African identity through a postcolonial lens, using the braai as a thematic point of departure. By deconstructing its forms, textures, and sensory elements, he interrogates its layered meanings in relation to his South African heritage and identity construction. His practice integrates traditional sculptural methods with digital technologies, including 3D modeling and printing, creating a dialogue between the tactile and the virtual, the past and the present.

A recipient of the 2024 William Humphreys Art Gallery Artist-in-Residence, Jonathan has exhibited nationally and internationally, with highlights including his solo exhibition From the Woods to the Soil at WHAG, Kimberley, and GFI Art Gallery, Gqeberha, The Art of Making It at 99 Loop Street, Cape Town as well as the Imago Mundi project, exhibiting in Venice, Rome, and New York. He has been a national finalist on numerous occasions in the Absa L’Atelier, Sasol New Signatures and PPC Imaginarium competitions. His curatorial highlight includes co-curating Land/Lines for the National Arts Festival’s Main Programme in 2024, emphasizing the cultural and socio-political depth of the Eastern Cape.

Through his art and research, Jonathan continues to challenge narratives of identity, materiality, and digital hybridity in a postcolonial South African context.

Late for a Picnic with Sarah

Jonathan vd Walt

Late for a Picnic with Sarah
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