IF YOU TEAR THE PAPER, THE SHIP WILL SINK
Kyra Papé Holz
A solo exhibition
5 September – 10 October, 2026
Please join us for the opening on Saturday, 5 September at 11h00 for 11h30
Kyra Papé Holz
Biography
Kyra Papé Holz (b.1993) a South African artist, raised in Benoni, Johannesburg, focuses her practice on drawing, sculpture and printmaking. She is an abstract artist with a particular interest in materiality. She has a Master of Art in Fine Arts by Research (2018) as well as a Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts Degree from the University of Witwatersrand (2015).
As the Robert Hodgins award winner (2014) she went on to jointly achieve the Top Achievers award in the Fourth-Year Fine Arts Department at the University of Witwatersrand (2015). She was a sculpture finalist in the PPC Imaginarium awards (2016) and was nominated by Artist Press for the Queen Sonja Print Award (2017) in Norway. Her sculpture was selected for the top 100 in the Absa Atelier, Give Art Light Exhibition (2018). In 2019 her work, Average (11.9 | 6), was purchased for the Modern Arts Projects collection. Later in 2019 she went on a six-week residency through the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art to Entabeni Farm in Knysna with artist Fatima Tayob Moosa. In 2020, she was a selected artist commissioned to make a work for Art Bank South Africa. Most recently Papé Holz was a selected artist for Sasol New Signatures – Expressions Unbound (2023).
Throughout her studies and practice as an artist, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions and art fairs. She has had a Solo Exhibition, Transude, in completion of her Master of Art, Fine Art degree at The Point of Order, Johannesburg (March, 2018). Her work is included in a few collections: Modern Arts Projects in South Africa (Harrie Siertsema); Nedbank (Sandton); Investec (London); Art Bank of South Africa; Artist Press Collection (Donated a work during residency); Wits Art Museum (Donated work from two print making exchanges); as well as of several private collections.
Statement
Kyra Papé Holz is an abstract artist working with fluid mediums. She explores form and its disruption through drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. Her interests are in the boundaries or non-boundaries that are being pushed, destabilised, or contained. Her practice is a response to her personal, emotional, and physical material experiences.
“I would simply like to move through the chaos, to find moments of peace, to find balance.”
Her work shifted after experiencing traumatic losses and moved towards an exploration of peaceful chaos. While maintaining her exploration of disrupted boundaries, she also explores the ebb and flow of the human experience in an abstract way. Her practice is deeply rooted in the dichotomies of existence, in the fragility of change, and in the reality of impermanence.
“If you tear the paper, the ship will sink.” – alludes to the ideas of disruption, balance and fragility. It is human nature to crave a sense of understanding, whether the answers are accessible or not. In her capacity, Papé Holz tries to make sense of the chaos of life through her abstract artworks. In her process, she visualises control and repetition co-existing with fluid and free mark-making. Her work does not intend to display difference, rather she explores the blurring of the boundary.
“I work intuitively, the ink and I play, dance and get lost. I don’t like to work with any preconceived ideas; I allow myself the freedom to make. While some works and I may battle others are simpler to make. I may not always have the words to express what I want to say, but my art is my language, my way of making sense of the world, and my experience of it.”
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ARTWORKS ON SHOW
