South African artist Gabrielle Kruger has developed an artistic practice that pushes the conventions of traditional painting. She experiments with acrylic paint as a dynamic medium by blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture. 

Kruger has developed a process where the paint mimics the viscosity of glue when wet and the elasticity of rubber when dry. By extruding and drying pieces of paint to assemble the painting, the paint becomes a collaging material. Drawn to the malleability of her chosen medium, the artist pushes and plays with the limits of acrylic paint. In her process of layering, weaving, scraping, cutting, collaging and folding, she allows the paint to develop its own language. Each element becomes a new brushstroke; a new type of mark making, that becomes part of intricate and sculptural compositions that go beyond traditional painting techniques.

Kruger finds inspiration from the natural environment; landscape scenery and the plants in gardens both wild and tamed. The idea of a socially and materially constructed landscape informs her work in both an abstract and figurative way. Through her investigation into the materiality of acrylic paint as a type of plastic, she re-imagines a landscape that transcends the boundaries of simulation and reality, drawing attention to the plasticity of our contemporary world and challenging perceptions of what really comprises the natural environment.

Gabrielle Kruger (b. 1993) lives and works in Cape Town.

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(Photographed by Mia Thom, 2024.)