KOOS DE WET : Eksteen in Art

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KOOS DE WET

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Jacobus Albertus [KOOS] de Wet was born in Pretoria, South Africa, the 6th of September 1973 and throughout his life lived in Hartbeespoort, Ceres, Johannesburg and Cape Town.
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Koos has explored several different creative fields such as advertising art, digital design, animation, decor design and even worked as a night-club DJ. Above all he loves painting. He has discovered his gift at the age of four years old, when he could copy the drawings that his father drew of cars, aeroplanes, people etc.
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Through his work he aims to capture the emotional and spiritual content within "simple" everyday life subject matter, past and present. His love for his environment and his fascination with people of all cultures is evident, yet he is mostly drawn to the concept of form, colour and texture. The artist explores the language of shape and colour. He likes to experiment with different mediums. Streched canvas would mostly form the surface of each artwork, but sometimes he would create wall panels or screens by using wooden off-cuts, pieces of ceramic, paints, stains, paper cuts or anything he gets to lay his hands on.
Koos has always been extremely versatile in his painting. Without any formal education in the arts (except for the extra mural art lessons during school) he was forced to study most different genres of painting as well as the works of the great masters in his own time. By practically "trying everything" and by being a very self-critical perfectionist, he became a very fast learner and improved at a serious rate.
Koos does not want to be part of a particular genre more than to fall under contemporary. This gives him enough room to create. Koos sees himself as a philosophical intelectual, mysteries theologan and wisdom seeker. He strives to be a material minimalist in this modern day and age of mass consumption. He urges the world to go back to study the ideas of Socrates, because it has now become an urgency. The world cannot carry on consuming at this rate. There is a massive global misconception of what is really important in life.
To be surrounded by art is such a great virtue. May it be at home or in office. Art inspires and influences emotions. It makes a big difference in these ice cold, dirty grey worlds many of us find ourselves in.
Through his art, Koos tries to be unattached to politics or negative subject matter. At the end of the day his sole purpose in his works is to beautify ones surroundings and to challenge the intelect may it be.
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Paradox, humor and change are three major ingredients in Koos's paintings. He refuses to ellaborate on this, but challenges the viewer to seek this in his works.
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He had the opportunity to sell most of his works through his co-owned shop/gallery with his wife Anastasia, called Induna Gallery at The Palms Lifestyle and Décor Centre, Cape Town. This gave him a chance to get direct feedback from the public on his works. They sold the shop end 2004 and are now painting full-time.
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Solo Exhibitions:
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Memory Blocks - Third I Gallery, Cape Town, December 2003 - January 2004.
Sub-journey - White House Inn, Knysna during the Knysna/Nederburgh Arts Experience, October 1998.
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Group Exhibitions:
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Spring Celebration of Enlightenment Exhibition, Parkhurst September 2005
Standard Bank Arts Awards, Pretoria Art Museum 1995

Koos DE WET (ZA)