Gallery Chaton

Maria Pienaar Water
23 May to 13 June 2026

‘WATER’ is a collection of works by Maria Pienaar who studied visual arts at Unisa and graduated in 2016.  Her interest in textile art developed and is now the focus of her artistic practice. 

She grew up on a farm in the Free State and holds her Afrikaner heritage close. Much of her work returns to family history, rooted in the belief that cultural inheritance and personal memory shape her sense of self.  This series honours her father, Jan Arie Gutter.

Maria participated twice as finalist in the Sasol New Signatures and exhibited at three international shows. Previous solo exhibitions at the Association of Arts Pretoria are The Ties that Bind (2017), Warp, weft, woof (2019) and Letters to Mom (2024).

She works through slow, deliberate processes.  In ‘WATER’, she draws on canvas, then stitches and glues – a labour-intensive form of art which demands discipline and patience.  Guided by memories of her mother’s hand crafts, she returns to images on old family photographs to explore and narrate stories.  Thread becomes an archetypal sign of life, underscoring the fragility of memory and of life itself.  These works invite viewers to turn inward and consider their own family histories and cultures.