Carien Otto
(b.1977) South Africa


In 1914 the Bloomsbury art critic Clive Bell wrote in his book 'Art', that there was a distinction between a thing's actual form and its 'significant form.' For Bell, recognition for a work of art as representation of a thing was less important than capturing the 'significant form' or true inner nature of a thing. Bell pushed for an art that used the techniques of an artistic medium to capture the essence of a thing (its 'significant form') rather than its mere outward appearance.

My work is primarily concerned with the transformation of painting/drawing into an existential drama with compositions of colour, line and form in the lead role. I believe that it is this, the composition and arrangement of form, line and colour, which make an object aesthetically pleasing, and not so much what it represents in reality; that an aesthetic object, a painting or sculpture, is a new creation and not a representation of nature.

I have been creating art all my life; as a small child I lost myself in my clay universes and making soap stone animals on the game farm in South Africa where I grew up. I have continued drawing, painting and sculpting throughout my life. After my graduation from The University of Pretoria in 2000 I embarked on a fruitful Design career now stretching over 10 years.

Following my first solo exhibition in 2004, which was a big success, I moved to London where I have now been happily living and working for over 5 years.