Gallery Chaton

Minnie Gerber - Re-imagine 12 September to 3 October 2026

Collage artist Stephanie D Olivier who turned 80 in April this year celebrates her life with an exhibition entitled Whatever! at the Association of Arts Pretoria.  She says that collage captivates her with its freedom and unpredictability.  Playful yet sometimes dark, it transforms scraps of books and magazines into unexpected meaning.  By cutting and reassembling printed media, she reclaims what once shaped her life in a world now dominated by technology.  Chaos is her starting point.  In a fractured and turbulent world, her response is simple: Whatever!

Residing in Pretoria, the artist is a self-taught collage artist whose creative journey began later in life after a career in IT spanning forty-five years.  Though her early education and professional training were unrelated to art, she discovered collage as a hobby twenty-five years ago, and it has since become her passion.  She has been a student with Johan Conradie for nearly 20 years, after doing some short courses in drawing, painting and Photoshop at Unisa.  Her career afforded her extensive travel opportunities, and she has attended four Venice Biennales, enriching her artistic perspective.  Stephanie has participated in various exhibitions, and her works are held in private collections both in South Africa and abroad.  Now retired, she embraces her role as a late-blooming artist, aspiring to be the “Grandma Moses of collage,” with the latter as her chosen medium and forté.