Strijdom van der Merwe (born 1961) is a South African

land art Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United StatesArt in the modern era: A guide to styles, schools, & mov ...

ist who uses materials he finds on site to create his artworks. His materials include sand, water, wood, rocks and stone. By shaping these elements into geometric forms he juxtaposes the contrast between artwork and environment, growth and destruction. Van Der Merwe's works are often very 'free' in the sense that he is able to respond to nature, but within the context of ' nature having a bigger impact on you, than you on nature'. A site, and the materials it offers, will reveal itself to you as the artist as you walk – be it in a forest, or along a beach, or in the Karoo. Only then will ideas and working methods start developing. It's a process of working with the natural material you find on site. Nothing is planned ahead – it's all improvised as you go along. Van Der Merwe studied art at the

University of Stellenbosch Stellenbosch University ( af, Universiteit Stellenbosch) is a public research university situated in Stellenbosch, a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Stellenbosch is the oldest university in South Africa and the oldest extant ...

, South Africa, after which he studied printing in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and sculpture in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. He was also a full-time artist at the

Kent Institute of Art and Design The Kent Institute of Art & Design (KIAD, often ) was an art school based across three campuses in the county of Kent, in the United Kingdom. It was formed by the amalgamation of three independent colleges: Canterbury College of Art, Maidstone Col ...

in Canterbury, England. Van Der Merwe's work is frequently exhibited in galleries throughout South Africa. He has done commissions throughout the world, including Turkey, France, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, Italy and Australia. Exhibitions and commissions on invitation were done in South Korea, Turkey, Belgium, France, Sweden, Lithuania, Japan, Australia, Germany, England and Italy. He held many personal exhibitions in various art galleries in the past years and his work has been bought by numerous private and public collectors. He has commissioned sculptures for the following: Europo Parkos in Lithuania; Art Park in Art Sella, Borgu Falsugano in Italy; Floating Land, Brisbane, Australia. In 2002 he was the co-curator of the first Spier Outdoor Sculpture Biennale in conjunction with the Jan Marais Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch. His 2001 memorial sculpture ''Reconciliation'' at the

United Nations Memorial Cemetery The United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK; ), located at Tanggok in the Nam District,; also seeKorea 1:50,000 Pusan Sheet 7019 III (1947) an City of Busan,As a transliteration from Korean, the city name 부산 () was typically spel ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

was created as part of the

International Sculpture Symposium The International Sculpture Symposium movement was spearheaded by Karl Prantl in Austria in 1959. This initiative grew from the need to facilitate communication and exchange between members of the international sculpture community. It was also roo ...

. Van Der Merwe is co-founder of the first South African Land Art Biennale, entitled Site_Specific, giving artists the platform and opportunity to engage with art in the landscape. The first biennale was in

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plet or Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there were 29,149 population. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("beautifu ...

in 2011, with the second biennale in August 2013. A new documentary feature film about Van Der Merwe titled 'Sculpting This Earth' and directed by Victor van Aswegen is currently in production, with filming scheduled to complete in December 2021.

Awards

* Recipient of the Jackson Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant * Medal of Honor from the South African Academy of Arts and Science. * Nominated for the Daimler Chrysler award for sculpture in Public Spaces 2008

References

External links

*
Artist Bio on Artthrob

South African artists on Sylt

Seemingly ‘impossible’ art forms: Strijdom van der Merwe’s land art in the context of the South African art market, by Jean le Clus-Theron

CIRCA Gallery

Site_Specific
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merwe, Strijdom Van Der 1961 births Living people 20th-century South African artists 21st-century South African artists Land artists Stellenbosch University alumni