SHANY VAN DEN BERG
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Re-form I
Paper collage and oil on board, 90 x 60 cm
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, A Short Myth
pencil and gum arabic on vintage paper, 38 x 28 cm
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, A Short Fable
pencil, ink, watercolour and collage on vintage paper, 38 x 28 cm
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Kaai'mans
wooden plinth, glass, steel, impasto oil paint and engraving on 1920's wooden hat stand, 68 x 35 x 25 cm
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Dag 31 Augustus 2017
Mixed media on reverse side of vintage map, 26 x 17 cm
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, A bunch of joy
Oil on linen, 86 x 86 cm
Working with oil paint allows me to build layers of light and colour, striving to capture not just an image, but a feeling - the warmth of sun on skin, the delicate texture of a petal, the hushed atmosphere of a private sanctuary. This work is my personal refuge, an invitation to step away from the noise of the world and contemplate the quiet drama of nature's cycles.
- Shany van den Berg
Shany van den Berg’s practice centres on contemporary portraiture and figurative work, with an underlying theme of womanhood. Her ethereal oil paintings evoke the mood and texture of Old Master paintings, conveying complex emotions and ideas through meticulous attention to detail, an extraordinary facility with paint and subtle symbolism. Van den Berg’s portraiture is most often of women, whose features morph into a composite of the artist and her loved ones, serving as portals to narratives of sacrifice, struggle and ultimately transcendence.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, A rose is a rose is a rose
Oil on linen, 100 x 100 cm
When I set about painting a floral still life, I don’t rely on a physical arrangement of flowers. The elements are conjured in my imagination and then I begin researching my fantasy flowers that quench my longing for nature, for joy and for a sense of freedom.
I think about war and insecurity that plagues our beautiful planet. I painted the red rose for the love I want to send around the world.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Abundance
Oil on linen, 150 x 150 cm
The proliferation of birds encircling evokes the spiritual messaging between the heavens and the earth; the fluttering of wings is also ‘akin to the swirling of thought’. They tap into the responsibility an artist has to manifest their message through their work. In Van den Berg’s instance, this is the absolute necessity for growth, communion, rest, and self-reflection in order to preserve the beauty of the Earth
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Between heaven and earth
Oil on linen, 130 x 100 cm
Shany van den Berg's nudes are lush and vegetal and exemplify her profound connection to nature, womanhood and her place in the world. For the artist, motifs from the natural world centre on the cycles of changing seasons which are mirrored in family lines and individual lives.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Curls and swirls in yellow vase
Oil on linen, 100 x 100 cm
Shany van den Berg has arranged the curves and colours of flowers in oil paint, with a nod to Georgie O’Keefe. To capture a plant on canvas or in bronze is to stop time – to give it eternity. For Van den Berg, depicting plants is a matter of self-reflection. She is sharing the love, purity, passion, beauty, innocence, death and new life of the garden within.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Dream garden
Oil on linen, 100 x 130 cm
Shany van den Berg has arranged grown gardens over the skin of painted figures which reference the reclining nudes of Delacroix. To capture a plant on canvas or in bronze is to stop time – to give it eternity. For Van den Berg, depicting plants is a matter of self-reflection. She is sharing the love, purity, passion, beauty, innocence, death and new life of the garden within.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Embrace on a blue table
Oil on board, 60 x 40 cm
When I set about painting a floral still life, I don’t rely on a physical arrangement of flowers. The elements are conjured in my imagination and then I begin researching my fantasy flowers that quench my longing for nature, for joy and for a sense of freedom.
I think about war and insecurity that plagues our beautiful planet. I painted the pair of white poppies, embracing, as a symbol of the peace I yearn for.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Flowers
oil on French linen, 45 x 50 cm
Shany van den Berg is renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work. Van den Berg’s ethereal oil paintings evoke the mood and texture of Old Master paintings, conveying complex emotions, moods and ideas through meticulous attention to detail, an extraordinary facility with paint and subtle symbolism. A sense of layering pervades her works, in the imagery itself and through Van den Berg’s painterly process. Surfaces are built up of swathes, not painted onto the board but rather, absorbed into it. She explores contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, the natural world and connectedness to Mother Earth.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, He made beautiful vases .... an ode I
Oil on linen, 60 x 40 cm
Shany van den Berg's floral still lifes are lush and vegetal and exemplify her profound connection to nature, womanhood and her place in the world. For the artist, motifs from the natural world centre on the cycles of changing seasons which are mirrored in family lines and individual lives. The curves and palette of her florals might take inspiration from the likes of Georgie O’Keefe, but they are largely the vibrant inventions of her imagination.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, He made beautiful vases .... an ode II
Oil on linen, 60 x 40 cm
Shany van den Berg's floral still lifes are lush and vegetal and exemplify her profound connection to nature, womanhood and her place in the world. For the artist, motifs from the natural world centre on the cycles of changing seasons which are mirrored in family lines and individual lives. The curves and palette of her florals might take inspiration from the likes of Georgie O’Keefe, but they are largely the vibrant inventions of her imagination.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, I arranged her red roses for insomnia (After Louise Bourgeois ... Insomnia drawings of red roses)
Oil on board, 50 x 40 cm
In my practice, reference and reimagine the historical genres of the still life and the nude, placing them in a contemporary context that is intensely personal to my life and my particular state of mind......In my homage to Louise Bourgeois’ insomnia drawings, there are red roses in a vase with a woman staring back at me – awake, but peaceful to the rhythms of life.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Intertwined II
Oil on canvas, 100 x 135 cm
Shany van den Berg’s practice centres on contemporary portraiture and figurative work. Her inspirations stems from her life as a woman, mother of four children and a
professional artist.
Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work, she explores the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to Mother Earth. Van den Berg’s portraiture is most often of women, whose features morph into a composite of the artist and her loved ones, serving as portals to narratives of sacrifice, struggle and ultimately transcendence. The references are delicate and ambiguous.
Van den Berg has worked as a full-time artist for almost thirty years. She is a threetime finalist in the BP National Portrait Award in the UK (now the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award), as well as a threetime finalist in the South African Sanlam Portrait Award. Her practice includes painting on board, linen and found objects, drawing, sculpture, site specific installations, mixed media, three-dimensional work as well as poetry and music.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Looking through the foliage (Female form after Diego Velazquez)
Oil on board, 40 x 60 cm
Shany van den Berg's paintings revel in the dialogue between the human form and the natural world.
I arrange flowers in vases and figures in gardens, with a similar eye for composition, exploring how the curve of a voluptuous vase echoes the sensuous curves of a human body. My intention is to create a sense of harmonious tension, where the cultivated and the wild, the temporary and the timeless, exist in a single, balanced frame. I think of my paintings as both a celebration of colour and form, but also a meditation on stillness and the ephemeral beauty to be found in the quiet, often-overlooked spaces between the domestic and the wild.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, My vase het begin groei I (My vase has begun to grow I)
Bronze, 48 x 44 x 44 cm
To capture a plant on canvas or in bronze is to stop time – to give it eternity. For Shany van den Berg, depicting plants is a matter of self-reflection. She is sharing the love, purity, passion, beauty, innocence, death and new life of the garden within.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, My vase het begin groei II (My vase has begun to grow II)
Bronze, 63 x 55 x 55 cm
To capture a plant on canvas or in bronze is to stop time – to give it eternity. For Shany van den Berg, depicting plants is a matter of self-reflection. She is sharing the love, purity, passion, beauty, innocence, death and new life of the garden within.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Oh! it's a sunny day
Oil on board, 80 x 60 cm
Shany van den Berg's paintings revel in the dialogue between the human form and the natural world.
I arrange flowers in vases and figures in gardens, with a similar eye for composition, exploring how the curve of a voluptuous vase echoes the sensuous curves of a human body. My intention is to create a sense of harmonious tension, where the cultivated and the wild, the temporary and the timeless, exist in a single, balanced frame. I think of my paintings as both a celebration of colour and form, but also a meditation on stillness and the ephemeral beauty to be found in the quiet, often-overlooked spaces between the domestic and the wild.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Pink hibiscus in wavy vase
Oil on linen, 60 x 80 cm
My work draws on my responses to the traditions of still life and landscape painting as well as my personal memories as a child, gardening with my mother. It is also nourished by my enduring love for gardens and walking in nature.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Red hibiscus in my orange vase
Oil on board, 80 x 60 cm
The curves and palette of Shany van den Berg's florals might take inspiration from the likes of Georgia O’Keefe, but they are largely the vibrant inventions of her imagination.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Remembrance
Oil on linen, 100 x 100 cm
When I set about painting a floral still life, I don’t rely on a physical arrangement of flowers. The elements are conjured in my imagination and then I begin researching my fantasy flowers that quench my longing for nature, for joy and for a sense of freedom.
I think about war and insecurity that plagues our beautiful planet. I painted the red, larger-than-life, open poppy for remembrance.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Rose's little black vase
Oil on board, 60 x 40 cm
When I set about painting a floral still life, I don’t rely on a physical arrangement of flowers. The elements are conjured in my imagination and then I begin researching my fantasy flowers that quench my longing for nature, for joy and for a sense of freedom.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, She brings rain and abundance
Oil on linen, 130 x 100 cm
Shany van den Berg's nudes are lush and vegetal and exemplify her profound connection to nature, womanhood and her place in the world. For the artist, motifs from the natural world centre on the cycles of changing seasons which are mirrored in family lines and individual lives.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, She found her place to bloom
oil impasto on board, 30 x 25 cm
My process with oil paint is essential to this exploration. I need both the richness of layered brushwork and impasto to build a tangible sense of life and texture, but also delicate, thin glazes of paint to capture the ethereal, to evoke a sense of timelessness and stillness.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 45
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg's artistic practice stems from her life as a woman, mother and professional artist.
Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work, she explores the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to Mother Earth.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 46
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg reconstitutes her stream of consciousness as both fable and history, binding together a layered ‘map’. This serves as both a solitary interior landscape of self-reflection and the more universal language of humanity's journey through one’s life.
Shany van den Berg’s artworks poignantly remind one that we are each unique but also inescapably part of one human race and planet.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 52
mixed media on vintage linen, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg's artistic practice stems from her life as a woman, mother and professional artist.
Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work, she explores the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to Mother Earth.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 53
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg reconstitutes her stream of consciousness as both fable and history, binding together a layered ‘map’. This serves as both a solitary interior landscape of self-reflection and the more universal language of humanity's journey through one’s life.
Shany van den Berg’s artworks poignantly remind one that we are each unique but also inescapably part of one human race and planet.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 61
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg's artistic practice stems from her life as a woman, mother and professional artist.
Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work, she explores the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to Mother Earth.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 64
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg reconstitutes her stream of consciousness as both fable and history, binding together a layered ‘map’. This serves as both a solitary interior landscape of self-reflection and the more universal language of humanity's journey through one’s life.
Shany van den Berg’s artworks poignantly remind one that we are each unique but also inescapably part of one human race and planet.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 66
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg's artistic practice stems from her life as a woman, mother and professional artist.
Renowned for her technical acumen, subtle symbolism and agility in shifting between portraiture, figurative, abstraction and sculptural work, she explores the critical contemporary themes of womanhood, identity, family, and connectedness to Mother Earth.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Short Stories 71
Mixed media on board, 26 x 16 cm
Shany van den Berg reconstitutes her stream of consciousness as both fable and history, binding together a layered ‘map’. This serves as both a solitary interior landscape of self-reflection and the more universal language of humanity's journey through one’s life.
Shany van den Berg’s artworks poignantly remind one that we are each unique but also inescapably part of one human race and planet.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Textural arrangement
Oil on linen, 100 x 100 cm
Working with oil paint allows me to build layers of light and colour, striving to capture not just an image, but a feeling - the warmth of sun on skin, the delicate texture of a petal, the hushed atmosphere of a private sanctuary. This work is my personal refuge, an invitation to step away from the noise of the world and contemplate the quiet drama of nature's cycles.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, The sleeping Venus (Female form after Giorgione)
Oil on board, 40 x 56 cm
Shany van den Berg's paintings revel in the dialogue between the human form and the natural world.
I arrange flowers in vases and figures in gardens, with a similar eye for composition, exploring how the curve of a voluptuous vase echoes the sensuous curves of a human body. My intention is to create a sense of harmonious tension, where the cultivated and the wild, the temporary and the timeless, exist in a single, balanced frame. I think of my paintings as both a celebration of colour and form, but also a meditation on stillness and the ephemeral beauty to be found in the quiet, often-overlooked spaces between the domestic and the wild.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, We share this space
Oil on board, 30 x 30 cm
Shany van den Berg's paintings revel in the dialogue between the human form and the natural world.
I arrange flowers in vases and figures in gardens, with a similar eye for composition, exploring how the curve of a voluptuous vase echoes the sensuous curves of a human body. My intention is to create a sense of harmonious tension, where the cultivated and the wild, the temporary and the timeless, exist in a single, balanced frame. I think of my paintings as both a celebration of colour and form, but also a meditation on stillness and the ephemeral beauty to be found in the quiet, often-overlooked spaces between the domestic and the wild.
- Shany van den Berg
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Who's there in my garden? (Female form after Ingres)
Oil on board, 40 x 60 cm
Shany van den Berg's reclining nudes trace their lineage to the Renaissance masters and the Neoclassical movement - most notably Giorgione, Titian and Ingres - and continue an intimate conversation across time.
SHANY VAN DEN BERG, Woman with pink hibiscus
Oil on linen, 40 x 72 cm
Shany van den Berg’s nudes and floral still lifes are lush and vegetal and exemplify her profound connection to nature, womanhood and her place in the world. For the artist, motifs from the natural world centre on the cycles of changing seasons which are mirrored in family lines and individual lives.
Shany van den Berg’s practice centres on contemporary portraiture and figurative work, with an underlying theme of womanhood. Her ethereal oil paintings evoke the mood and texture of Old Master paintings, conveying complex emotions and ideas through meticulous attention to detail, an extraordinary facility with paint and subtle symbolism. Van den Berg’s portraiture is most often of women, whose features morph into a composite of the artist and her loved ones, serving as portals to narratives of sacrifice, struggle and ultimately transcendence.
Specialists in contemporary art from South Africa. Established in 1913. South African artists are part of the global conversation. We seek to make their voices heard.