In 2025, I took part in the Riebeek Valley Solo Studios exhibition, hosted across Riebeek Kasteel and Riebeek West in the Western Cape, South Africa. This exhibition felt personal, not only because I was showing work, but because it took place in the valley I now call home.
For this exhibition, I showed work spanning roughly six years. From some of the very first pieces I made when I was still finding my way into making art, through to more recent work created after moving to the Riebeek Valley in search of quiet and space.
Seeing these works together felt like laying out a timeline. Not a polished one, but an honest one.
My practice moves through abstraction, mapping, memory, and systems of understanding. Having these works share a space made certain shifts visible to me for the first time. How the work has slowed down. How it has become more layered. How it no longer tries to explain itself too quickly. Much of that change is tied to place, and to the quieter rhythm of life in the valley.
The Solo Studios format suited this kind of work. Artists were spread across both towns, and visitors moved through the valley to experience the exhibition. People arrived slowly, stayed longer, and engaged in a way that felt unforced. The work was allowed to breathe.
Exhibiting in Riebeek West, so close to where the work is made, collapsed the distance between studio and exhibition. It felt less like presenting finished outcomes and more like inviting people into an ongoing process.
Riebeek Valley Solo Studios 2025 will stay with me as a quiet but important moment. A chance to acknowledge where I started, where I am now, and how deeply place is woven into my work.
More information about the exhibition can be found at Riebeek Valley Solo Studios.
