Gerda is a mixed-media artist based in Cape Town, South Africa, with over twenty years' experience in the fashion and design industry. After completing a bachelor's degree at the University of Pretoria she was selected for a Masters programme in Antwerp, specialising in the history of costume and design. She then furthered her studies in Salzburg and worked in Amsterdam.
These years spent in Europe gave her a new perspective on the beauty of her own continent - its colours, its textures, its shapes - which she strives to capture in layers of mixed media stitched onto linen. With sensitive and keen observation, her most recent work meditates on the relationship between nature and humanity, between the past and the future. At times this takes on a voice of protest - one of her recent pieces on the endangered White Rhino was auctioned at a prestigious wildlife fundraising event.
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WWF Art Auction - For a Living Planet
Gerda recently auctioned one of her pieces at the WWF Art Auction in aid of relocating rhinos.
The auction was held in Johannesburg at Villa Arcadia – an appropriately majestic setting. The auction was attended by art collectors, artists and conservationists coming together to support and toast the relentless work undertaken by the WWF.
Gerda recollects seeing her piece hanging in the exhibition “it was a warm, proud moment to see ‘Endangered’ looking back at me. The thousands of little pieces of fabric I stitched down to create the hide worked beautifully from across the massive room.”
The work was particularly popular at the auction because of the way it evoked the near extinction of the species, “what if this African beauty falls apart? The bold red creates the panic of trying to mend the rhino – a few centimetres away from extinction.”
