Main Gallery

Philip Badenhorst

Archaeology of my existence - a timeless way of life
26 September to 10 October 2020

Philip Badenhorst is well known for his rich impasto, colourful and expressionistic oil paintings.  His career as a painter includes almost forty solo exhibitions and he has participated in nearly one hundred group exhibitions in South Africa and abroad since 1981.
The artist often uses human figures, surrounded by flowers, foliage, bouquets, dark forests and water.  Although Philip’s work is not devoid of social realities, the viewer enters his inner world with the leitmotif being the artist's own history, his own fears and life.  The viewer is seduced by the surface of the paintings and discovers layers of content beyond the more obvious qualities, for example the disarming sense of vulnerability that creates an almost uneasy sense of voyeurism.
 
This exhibition of paintings deals with ‘archaeological’ deposits, discoveries, concealed meanings, concepts and lyrical stories about the cryptic sky, land and seabed histories.  Figurative elements such as boat wrecks, mounds and grids are present in these works. 

The emphasis shifts from the narrative to the artwork as embodied experience, and this preference to acknowledge the creative act as a dynamic and self-reliant process becomes the driving force in his work.