Andrew Kayser

Psycho-geographical, Andrew Kayser’s (b. 1975) paintings explore a lived habitat that is spatial, visceral, and gnawing. That habitat is suburbia, capitalism’s middle-class ideal, a place of comfort compromised at every turn by the struggle to maintain it. Using oil paint as his primary medium and the suburban landscape as a departure point, Kayser’s paintings suggest a collision of inner and outer realities, an impression that meaning is fleeting and intimately personal. Focusing on themes of doubt, ambiguity, and contradiction the artist never allows himself to intercede on behalf of the viewer; all interpretations are welcome, necessary. In acknowledging that the world is not something to be known and understood, but rather to be seen and queried, the artist strives to create works that are poignant, melancholic, and beautiful.

Born in East London, South Africa, Kayser graduated from the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten (Royal Academy of Art), Den Haag, Netherlands in 2001 and went on to participate in several exhibitions in and around the Netherlands before returning to South Africa in 2005. After a lengthy struggle with alcoholism, Kayser regained sobriety, resuming his professional practice of art in 2014. In 2017, Kayser held his first solo exhibition, ‘At Home After Dark’ at Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg. The year 2020 marked a shift from his previous mixed media works and drawings to a more singular focus on oil painting.

In 2023 this shift was consolidated with his fifth solo exhibition, ‘Fragments of Longer Stories’ at Graham Contemporary, Johannesburg. Kayser has participated in numerous group exhibitions and his work has been shown at a number of art fairs including Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen; Cologne Fine Art and Design; AKAA Art and Design Fair, Paris; 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London; Investec Cape Town Art Fair and Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair. His work is collected nationally and internationally.

Kayser lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.