Kyra Simoné Papé Holz, a young South African artist, born in 1993, and raised in Johannesburg focuses her practice on drawing, sculpture and printmaking. She is an abstract artist with a particular interest in materiality. She has her Master of Arts in Fine Arts by Research (2018) as well as a Bachelor of Arts 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) as well as being nominated by Artist Press for the Queen Sonja Print Award (2017). 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, and she went on a six-week residency through SAFFCA at Entabeni Farm in Knysna with artist Fatima Tayob Moosa. In 2020, she was selected as one of the artists commissioned to make a work for Art Bank South Africa. Most recently Papé was selected as one of the artists for Sasol New Signatures (2023).
Throughout her studies and practice as an artist, she has participated in numerous group exhibitions, fairs and has had a Solo Exhibition, Transude, in completion of her Master in Art, Fine Art degree at The Point of Order (March 2018).
Image: Courtesy of artist
Artist Statement
Kyra Papé Holz is an abstract artist working with fluid mediums, exploring form and the disruption there of. She works primarily in drawing while also including printmaking and sculpture. With her interests being 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 those beautiful moments of peace, to find balance.”
Her work has begun to shift after experiencing a traumatic loss and has moved towards an exploration of a peaceful chaos. While maintaining her exploration of disrupted boundaries she is now exploring 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 the reality of impermanence.
If you tear the paper, the ship will sink – illudes 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 own capacity Papé Holz, tries to make sense of the chaos of life through her abstract drawings. 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 work with any preconceived ideas; I allow myself the freedom to make. While some works and I may battle others are a breeze. 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.”
Image: Courtesy of artist
Drawings & Prints
BeneathBelowHope in the DepthsAll the Places We Have Been – SoldThe Taste of Silver Rain is Never Going To Fill You UpDisrupted M03Disrupted M04Disrupted M05Disrupted M08Disrupted M02ADisrupted M02BDisrupted S02
