Lize Krüger — Contemporary Art Curator Magazine

Biography
Lize Krüger is a South African artist, who now lives and works in the UK. In her third and fourth year of her BA Fine Art studies, she won the Gregoire Boonzaaier Prize for her major subject, Painting.
She had numerous Solo Exhibitions and took part in various Group Exhibitions. She also taught art classes at a facility for under 18 rape victims and at a facility for quadriplegic patients.

Artist Statement
Lize is always curious about ’man’ and his/ her thought processes. She prefers to delve deep into the psyche of humans and their circumstances and struggles. Despite that, she always seeks and finds meaning and beauty in the most painful situations and darkest nights of our existence. Current issues of the day, addressing injustice, creating awareness about certain aspects of life, for instance, mental health, abuse, fear, angst, loss, and grief, are all issues that she aims to convey in her work. She feels passionate about the global refugee crisis, the increasing suicide rate, growing intolerance, and the threat of the global rising of fascism. In other words, mostly about the human condition, regardless of age, race, culture, or religion. She feels that she needs to give it an image, make it concrete. Lize confronts her viewer, without scaring him/her away. It is usually seen as depressing topics or themes by the general public. To her, it is part of Life. She aims to turn this unspeakable and unapproachable topics into Life-and Love-affirming works. She herself has to dig deep into her own psyche and confront her own fears and demons in order to tackle these themes with authenticity.

What first prompted you to think of becoming an artist?

It never really was as much as a specific moment, but rather more of an organic development. My aunt was an artist and well-known fashion designer in South Africa, and she bought me my first set of oil pastels and drawing pad when I was 10 years old. That was all I've needed at that stage to become completely obsessed. After that, it was just a natural decision to study art after school.

What kind of an artist do you ultimately see yourself?

At heart, I am an activist and it will always be impossible for me not to have any commentary or an opinion about issues of the day, especially if it has to do with any kind of injustice concerning children. The refugee crisis and mental health are also issues I am very passionate about. I don’t see myself as someone with exceptional writing skills or being much of an orator, so I will rather give images to the issues that speak to me, instead of writing a blog or article about it. To answer your question, I would like to see myself as an artist who made a difference and hopefully gave a voice to those marginalized in life.

What are you hoping to communicate to the viewer through your work?

I hope that I will create a lasting awareness about things that people choose not to see and are not prepared to give attention to. By creating work that seems to be visually pleasing, I attempt to draw the viewer in and then connect with their conscience, vulnerability, and a deep sense of self.

Can you explain the process of creating your work?

Being almost 60 years old, I was trained in a traditional way and continued to work that way. I always find it quite challenging to convey my conceptual message on a single two-dimensional surface. In order to get around that, I worked by overlaying sheets of Plexiglass on top of my canvas and in doing so, creating layered works with incredible depth. It's is however an extremely expensive way of working and I had to find another avenue to achieve it. Digital media was something I could only dream about because I am not computer literate. But having discovered Procreate and actually still having very limited digital skills, I experimented and familiarise myself to the extent where I can now mainly utilize it as my primary tool to create dense and layered archival pigment prints. However, in these works, many individual elements juxtaposed in the final works are still created by my own hand. I love using some of my drypoint images, by incorporating and manipulating them into a new visual language. I will add and remove elements until I am completely satisfied that it is a work that communicates the message I want to convey. Because of my limited digital knowledge, I will work for ages on an image with my skills, destroy it, start again, and repeat the whole process.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?

The moment I see or hear something that stirs emotion in me, and I immediately know which kind of image I want to attach to that. From there on it is actually an exciting process to see how one element can lead to another, and how the process of the message develops. Due to the fact that I am working with a new medium after years of traditional mediums, is a daily joy to me. I think I am at a stage of creative and emotional purging after a very long silence. Working with a digital medium offers me the opportunity to work like a demon, without being precious about a canvas or the wasting of paint. I will sit in front of the TV or in bed, and not stop working! Unfortunately, my poor household is now a mess of course... What really excites and satisfies me is the fact that I always find universal meaning in a personal expression and vice versa. It simply confirms the connectedness we have with one another and our environment. I don't think we can afford to have any apathy towards individual- or world problems.

Can you give us an insight into current projects and inspiration, or what we can look forward to from you in the near future?

At the moment, I am preparing my work to be sent off to five different international art fairs in which I am participating in. I am also investigating how to become more involved with, for instance, refugee and suicide/mental health institutions or charities. To offer some of my work to them for possible auctioning purposes as a manner of funding income.

Website www.lizekrugerfineart.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lizekrugerfineart

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/lizekrugerstudio