CONTACT
Mobile: +27 73 357 3113
Email: info@mjlourens.com
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Lourens repositions the South African landscape as a site of psychological projection rather than geographic description. His paintings occupy liminal territories in which memory, perception and spatial experience become entangled.
Through subtle surreal interventions, the artist destabilises the authority of the observed landscape, transforming familiar suburban and industrial environments into spaces of existential reflection.
The recurring motifs of infrastructure, peripheral terrain and atmospheric light function as mnemonic architectures through which questions of belonging, displacement and memory are negotiated.
Rather than presenting the landscape as a stable national symbol, Lourens constructs it as a fluid and psychologically charged field in which reality remains perpetually unresolved.
His landscapes exist on the threshold between recognition and estrangement, where the familiar world becomes quietly uncanny.
What is particularly compelling is that Lourens achieves this without abandoning beauty. The skies remain sublime, the light seductive, the compositions cinematic. Yet beneath that beauty sits a persistent unease — as if the landscape remembers something the viewer cannot fully access. That tension is where the work becomes powerful. It is not simply landscape painting; it is landscape as consciousness.
About MJ Lourens
MJ Lourens was born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1973.
He studied Fine Art Sculpture at the University of Pretoria from 1992 to 1996.
His body of work includes paintings, sculptures and film, having exhibited in several prominent galleries around South Africa.
MJ has also directed and produced films such as DIE RIT/THE DRIVE (2009), PROGNOSE/PROGNOSIS (2008) and PA/FATHER (2006), which was screened at the Commonwealth Film Festival and was in the official selection of the African International Film Festival, Tariva, Spain. MJ's films can be viewed at www.prefab.co.za.
MJ lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
Awards
1995 Winner of the Sasol New Signatures Competition | Pretoria Art Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
Collections
- Slow Lounge — Cape Town International Airport
- Nando’s UK
- South African Reserve Bank
- Telkom SA
- De Grendel
- Tronox — Stanford, USA
- Unisa – Pretoria
- Wapnick Collection — Pretoria
- Webber and Wenzel Attorneys
- Pretoria Art Museum
- Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) — South Africa
Galleries
Solo exhibitions
- 1998 — NIGHT — Millenium Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
- 2000 — NIGHT 2 — Gallery 88, Sasolburg, SA.
- 2006 — BEWOON:/INHABIT — Tina Skukan Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
- 2007 — DURBAN AT DUSK — Gallery 415, Durban, SA.
- 2008 — DUSK — Everard Read Gallery — Cape Town, SA.
- 2009 — STATES IN SPACES — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2011 — VERWAGTINGE / EXPECTATIONS — Gallery Grande Provence, Franschoek, SA.
- 2011 — AGO / GELEDE — Art Space, Johannesburg
- 2012 — PENINSULA — Chris Møller Art, Cape Town
- 2015 — WERK DIE LAND — Stephan Weltz & Co. Alphen Estate Constantia, Cape Town
- 2016 — PROXIMITY BY PROXY — Barnard Galery, Cape Town
- 2017 — IN SITU — Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg
- 2018 — VIEWS ON ENTROPY — Barnard, Cape Town
- 2019 — SHIFT/ VERSKUIF — 50th Anniversary of the earthquake, Tulbagh Arts Festival
- 2019 — LAND REWOVEN — Pierneef Museum, Franschhoek
Group exhibitions
- 1996 — DIVING, LOVING, PURGING" (with Diane Victor and C. Diedericks) — Open Window Art Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
- 1997 — DIVING II — Golden Globe Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 1999 — PRESENT CONTINUOUS — Open Window Art Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
- 2002 — OERBAAN — Open Window Art Gallery, Pretoria, SA.
- 2003 — EXTENSIONS — Bronze Age Foundry, Cape Town, SA.
- 2003 — BEACONS:/BAKENS" (with Louis Vorster) — Upstairs @Bamboo, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2004 — PROPERTY:/EIENDOM"(with Louis Nel) — Upstairs @Bamboo, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2005 — PRETORIA — Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town , SA.
- 2006 — TRACE — Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2006 — ICON — Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2007 — SMALL WORKS — Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2007 — DURBAN DETAILS" — Gallery 415, Durban, SA.
- 2007 — EVIDENCE — Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2007 — FLESH:/SCAPE" (with Lionel Smit) — Magpie Gallery, Irene, SA.
Group exhibitions (continued)
- 2008 — DSW — Saronsberg-Dorpstraat Gallery, Stellenbosch, SA.
- 2009 — THE CITY — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2009 — METROPOOL" (with Jaco Benade) - SAAA, Pretoria, SA.
- 2009 — SEX POWER MONEY — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2010 — VIEW FROM THE SOUTH — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2010 — FLOW — Carol Lee Fine Art, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2010 — WHERE? — Gallery Grande Provence, Franschhoek, SA.
- 2010 — ES(CAPE) — SAAA, Pretoria, SA.
- 2012 — PE PORTRAITS AND ENVIRONMENT" with Jaco Benade - ArtEvents, Port Elisabeth, SA.
- 2013 — TWO MAN SHOW WITH JACO BENADE — Trent Art, Pretoria, SA.
- 2014 — SECRET LOVE PROJECT SHOW — Cultural Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2014 — LAST MEAL — Trent Art, Pretoria, SA.
- 2014 — WHAT LIES BENEATH — Equus Gallery Cavalli Estate, Cape Town, SA.
- 2014 — SURVEY — Carrol Lee Fine Art Upstairs@bamboo, Johannesburg, SA.
- 2014 — GROUP SHOW — Chelsea Art Fair, UK.
- 2014 — VIVA VANITAS — Trent Art, Pretoria, SA.
- 2014 — WINTER EXHIBITION — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2015 — Equus Group show — Cavali wine Estate, Somerset West, Cape Town, SA.
- 2015 — Summer show — Everard Read, Cape Town, SA.
- 2015 — Dinner Collection – Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2016 — Future/Present — Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2016 — Cape Town Art Fair — Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2016 — NANO — Barnard Gallery, Cape Town, SA.
- 2017 — Masterpiece Johannes Borman, Cape Town SA.
- 2017 — Cape Town Art Fair Barnard Gallery
