Shui Hoppenstein
Biography
Shui Hoppenstein's practice explores the disconnect, tensions and love the artist feels towards the various environments he grew up in, as well as careful considerations of other people’s lives and influence. This ranges from interactions with elderly relatives and embarking on a journey to gain empathy for them, to facing his journey of forsaking the religious ideals he was raised with and reconciling his conflicted emotions to his family and community.
Hoppenstein's art deeply engages with flow and transience, creating worlds of motion and a myriad lines, bringing together a sense of movement and ungraspable change. In places, the disjunction between the artist and his environment is raw and sensitive, in others the tension is palpable and abrasive, and yet further, new encounters are explored, and ideological sovereignty is attempted. Some pieces are picked up, and others left behind. His creative work ranges from printmaking, drawing and painting to photography and video art. Always, his works are created with an eye for nuance and storytelling, and a hand with a knack
for incredible detail.
Hoppenstein recently completed his Bachelors & Honours Degrees in Visual Art at the University of
Johannesburg. He recently curated for Berman Contempory, returned from a residency in Budapest, and exhibited in multiple gallery exhibitions and events.
