Notes

Claudette Schreuders graduated with a master’s degree from the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 1998. She was part of the Liberated Voices exhibition at the Museum for African Art in New York in 1999 and had a solo show “Burnt by the Sun” at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York in 2001. In 2004/5 her first solo museum exhibition toured the United States.

Schreuders creates carved and painted wooden figures that reflect the ambiguities of the search for an 'African' identity in the post-apartheid 21st century. Drawing on the visual history of blolo and colon figures of West Africa to medieval church sculpture, Spanish portraiture and Egyptian woodcarving, Schreuders work successfully marries African and European influences.

Schreuders' work is often themed around private story telling – each figural group or piece has its origin in an individual’s personal experience. A self-described perfectionist, Schreuders work process follows a clear path: "I start off by making thumbnail sketches, very loose simple drawings of what I want to make. And I usually draw my sculptures in groups. Or on small pieces of paper, or in my books. The drawings I do for my sculptures are very informal. And the prints I do are much more finished products... I decided I would like to keep a record of my own work seeing as it's something that leaves me.”