Jaco Van Schalkwyk
Jaco van Schalkwyk (b. 1981, Benoni) is a highly versatile contemporary South African artist and visual researcher currently based in Johannesburg. Moving fluidly across painting, sculpture, installation, assemblage, and film, van Schalkwyk initially built widespread recognition for his meticulously realized, photorealistic oil landscapes. Reminiscent of 19th-century European Romanticism, his early absorbing canvases captured sublime, desolate environments to comment on human eco-anxiety, pollution, and the volatile relationship between mankind and the natural world.
Over the years, van Schalkwyk’s studio practice has expanded into a deeply conceptual investigation into the mechanics of representation, voyeurism, and illusionism. He explores how modern societies collect, construct, and mediate their everyday realities, subverting traditional visual systems to capture deeper psychological truths. This investigation took center stage in his acclaimed solo exhibition, -arium, presented by Barnard Gallery. In this body of work, he drew a direct, critical line between the historical, colonial "cabinets of curiosities" (Wunderkammern) of Renaissance Europe and the modern-day smartphone—framing the handheld device as an algorithmic container that objectifies, catalogs, and alienates our encounters with "the Other".
Jaco van Schalkwyk (b. 1981, Benoni) is a highly versatile contemporary South African artist and visual researcher currently based in Johannesburg. Moving fluidly across painting, sculpture, installation, assemblage, and film, van Schalkwyk initially built widespread recognition for his meticulously realized, photorealistic oil landscapes. Reminiscent of 19th-century European Romanticism, his early absorbing canvases captured sublime, desolate environments to comment on human eco-anxiety, pollution, and the volatile relationship between mankind and the natural world.
Over the years, van Schalkwyk’s studio practice has expanded into a deeply conceptual investigation into the mechanics of representation, voyeurism, and illusionism. He explores how modern societies collect, construct, and mediate their everyday realities, subverting traditional visual systems to capture deeper psychological truths. This investigation took center stage in his acclaimed solo exhibition, -arium, presented by Barnard Gallery. In this body of work, he drew a direct, critical line between the historical, colonial "cabinets of curiosities" (Wunderkammern) of Renaissance Europe and the modern-day smartphone—framing the handheld device as an algorithmic container that objectifies, catalogs, and alienates our encounters with "the Other".
