Artists

Zander Blom is an abstract painter with a deep interest in earlier twentieth-century Euro-American abstract painting. Trained in graphic design, his first works were drawings, paper assemblies, sound collages and photographs of unusual painted and sculpted sets fashioned by the artist in his Brixton home in Johannesburg. Now based in Cape Town, Blom is mainly identified as a painter. In 2014, he won the third Jean-François Prat Prize for contemporary painting in Paris; his work is also included in Phaidon's anthology, Vitamin P3: New Perspectives in Painting (2016). Blom's method is process-based and evolutionary, his canvases tending to progress through fixed series. Displeased with the capacities of brushes and oil sticks, Blom started applying his paint directly to his canvases using various palette knives, some even made by the artist. His use of impasto, gestural mark and pictorial structure, along with his exploitation of the oil paint's stain on unprimed Belgian linen, presents a distinctive painting style in South Africa. All of Blom's paintings are untitled, but for a numerical tag that situates each work in a timeline of his evolving practice.

Represented by Stevenson, Blom has held several solo shows at the gallery, the latest of which ran from 2 November 2024 to 17 January 2025 in Johannesburg. Additionally, he has participated in numerous solo and group shows in South Africa, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Mauritius, and the USA.

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Sean O’Toole is a writer, editor, and curator based in Cape Town. His books include the biography Irma Stern: African in Europe - European in Africa (2021) and short story collection The Marquis of Mooikloof and Other Stories (2006). He has edited three volumes of essays, including African Futures (2016) and The Journey (2020), which featured in the New York Times’ list of notable art books of 2021. His essays have appeared in monographs by, among others, Michael Armitage, David Goldblatt, Brett Seiler, Tracey Rose, Penny Siopis, and James Webb. He is a past editor of Art South Africa (2004-10) and in 2010 co-founded the urban-affairs magazine Cityscapes. A working journalist principally focused on art, photography and architecture, he has published widely in print and online. His recent curatorial projects include Congress (2021) at Norval Foundation, Photo book! Photo-book! Photobook! (2022) at A4 Arts Foundation, The Objects (2023) at Under Projects, as well as curated Solo at the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Investec Cape Town Art Fair. He has adjudicated numerous awards, including the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant (2015), Daimler Award for South African Photography (2003), Frieze Writer’s Prize (2013), and Norval Sovereign Africa Art Prize (2024). He is the founder of independent publisher Extemporary Press and a member of the experimental band The Bad Reviews with artist Zander Blom.

Biography courtesy of the artist