Artist Bio

I am a South African contemporary artist based in Riebeek West, working primarily with monotype, ink, and mixed media. My practice explores abstraction, mapping, and memory through layered mark-making, repetition, and intuitive process.

I work from a liminal place, a space of crossing rather than arrival. The process often begins without a clear plan. Scribbles, scratches, and broken marks become a way of thinking without words, allowing instinct to lead before clarity sets in. The work sits between abstraction and figuration, asking for a slower, more attentive way of looking.

My practice draws on cartography, architectural systems, and psychological mapping. Repeated lines, grids, and fragmented forms reference both physical terrain and internal landscapes, reflecting an ongoing interest in how memory, place, and perception are constructed and held.

Early in my practice, I worked under the pseudonym Lia Elden, a name derived from my own. At the time, I was shy, uncertain, and quietly terrified of how the work might be received. Using a pseudonym gave me the freedom to experiment without fear. As my confidence grew and paint accumulated under my nails, I began to care less about opinion and more about honesty. The work was always for me. Eventually, I returned to my own name. Danielle Vorster. I am an artist.

To me, these works feel like visual archaeology. They hold traces of emotion, perception, and the instinct to find meaning in complexity. They are not conclusions, but pauses. Spaces for reflection, reorganisation, and the emergence of something quieter and more expansive.

I maintain an active studio practice in the Riebeek Valley, where I continue to develop new bodies of work and share selected pieces through exhibitions and my online gallery.