Kelly van Graan

Born and based in Cape Town, Kelly Van Graan (b. 1997) is a mixed media artist who spent four years at Stellenbosch University under the BA Fine Art programme. Van Graan’s practice involves multiple processes within photography, collage and painting that traverses themes of identity in relation to inhabited spaces. Her art-making process rotates through various moments of her past to create a layered and overlapping history of herself. Within this, she constantly performs the act of photographing her environment and uses images as a tool for reflection and making sense of her being. She describes this process as a necessary, imperative act towards self-exploration through which she is able to piece together fragments of the past and form a better understanding of her being. Van Graan’s works thus become an attempt to reconcile the discrepancies between her unrecognisable past selves and her present self. Van Graan has exhibited in both local and international exhibitions such as the Incheon Asia Maritime Media Festival (2018) in South Korea. Her work is also a part of the Stellenbosch University private art collection (2017).