Notes

Walter Oltmann is renowned for his exquisite sculptural wire pieces in which he references local craft traditions.

He has researched and written on the use of wire in African material culture in this region and is deeply interested in the influence of these traditions in contemporary South African art. He creates works based on natural objects (human, plant and animal) playing with the idea of mutation, hybrids and reconfiguring the familiar. Through dramatically enlarging and/or transposing features of one to the other, he plays with the paradox between vulnerability and the monstrous while painstakingly articulating his subjects into multi-dimensional forms.

In his most recent body of work, Oltmann moved away from three-dimensional sculptural forms and instead created wire-textile wall hangings. The works are made up of delicate overlays of woven wire thus marrying sculpture and drawing.

Exhibited

The Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Penumbra, 2013