​Contemporary South African Art

Fine Arts Cum Laude graduate from the University of Potchefstroom, Christiaan Diedericks has created an impressive body of work over the years. He went on to complete his Masters in Fine Arts Cum Laude (practical component) at the University of Pretoria in 2000.

 

Diedericks has exhibited extensively throughout Southern Africa, as well as internationally. His work has been exhibited in the USA, Japan, Finland, Spain, Germany, Turkey, Poland, Belgium, England, Sweden and France, where he worked, as artist in residence, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Diedericks has also worked in New York, after receiving the prestigious Ampersand Foundation Fellowship, where his work was exhibited to critical acclaim in the New York Blade newspaper, at the gallery 5+5 in Brooklyn, in December 2007. 

 

Diedericks, amongst his many achievements, has also been awarded artist residencies at the Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium; The Halka Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey; The Venice Print Studio for large format printmaking, Italy and the Chhaap Foundation in India recently awarded Diedericks with an AIR in June/July 2013.  

 

In 2006 Christiaan was the winner of the coveted Kanna award for Fine Arts at the ABSA KKNK festival in Oudtshoorn for his exhibition Secrets and Lies: Her Majesty's Ivory Tower. He has also been given numerous grants over a broad spectrum, which range from a NAC International bursary for workshops in non-toxic printmaking in 1999 from the Grande Prairie Regional College in Alberta, Canada, to being chosen to appear on the 13th “The Apprentice” on SABC 3 in Johannesburg in 2005.

 

Collections  

Potchefstroom Museum - South AfricaPotchefstroom University - South AfricaOstrobothnian Museum - Vaasa - FinlandCité Internationale des Arts - Paris - FranceMuseum of Contemporary Art - Chamalieres - Auvergne - FranceSAAA - Head office - Pretoria - South Africa (collection sold)Biblioteque Nationale - Paris - FranceThe Robert Loder private collection - Johannesburg - South AfricaTelkom SA LTD - JohannesburgInvestec Bank - Cape TownPretoria Technikon - PretoriaDurban University of TechnologySasol – JohannesburgSasol Group Services – SecundaSasol Gas – JohannesburgMedunarodna Galerija Portreta - Tuzla - Republic of Bosnia and HerzegovinaMuceo Nacional del Grabado - Buenos Aires - ArgentinaDurban Art Gallery - DurbanABSA Bank – JohannesburgRand Merchant Bank – JohannesburgSpier Collection – StellenboschSanlam Collection – Cape TownMTN Collection – JohannesburgArtbank – JohannesburgThe Department of Art and Technology, – PretoriaNew York Public Library print collection, - New York City, USAAmpersand Foundation studio collection, - New York CityJohannesburg Art GalleryGallery 5 + 5, Brooklyn, - New York CityDept of Science and Technology - CSIR – PretoriaRMB Academy – JohannesburgPotchefstroom Gimnasium – PotchefstroomUniversity of Johannesburg – JohannesburgATKV – JohannesburgFrans Masereel Centrum – Kasterlee, BelgiumMOMA (The Museum of Modern Art) – New York City, USASouth African Consulate – Lagos, NigeriaLeslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art – NYC, USAUniversity of Cape Town – Cape TownLa collection de la Biennale Internationale d’estampe Contemporaine de Trois-Rivières – Quebec, Canada

 

"In my work, time and space appear to dissolve, and an air of conflict erupts. This is often a direct result of a personal aim to calm and disturb at the same time - drawing parallels between the two extremes of utopia and dystopia. There is always a secondary narrative in my work. The primary narrative has symbolic authority and aesthetic promise, although the mysterious secondary narrative exists in order to provoke thought in the viewer.

 

In many ways I aim to ‘rewrite’ history in my work and the dominant sense of self-awareness that informs most Western art practices. I am trying to present contemporary issues such as Difference as timeless, by situating my vocabulary of images and themes in an organic flux of dreams, history, news, commercial detritus, hyper-reality, and unvoiced feelings and forces of biological nature/desire."  Christian Diedericks

 

Ref:  http://chrisdiedericks.co.za/about/