Adele van Heerden

Adele van Heerden (b. 1989) is a painter living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. Van Heerden’s practice, characterised by her use of pencil and gouache on drafting film as well as oil and gouache on linen, is informed by the experience of a particular site or place. Her work is dedicated to the careful observation and study of surface, light, reflection, and fluidity.

Adele van Heerden (b. 1989) was born in Cape Town, South Africa, where she now lives and works. After graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from the Ruth Prowse School of Art in 2010, Van Heerden continued her studies at the University of South Africa, obtaining a BA in History, Politics and Art History. In 2015, she graduated from the University of Cape Town with an Honours Degree in Curatorship. Van Heerden is thus able to bring together ideas from her undergraduate fields of study in her fine arts practice. After Van Heerden's studies, she worked as a curator of a gallery, which she left in 2018 to pursue her fine arts practice full-time. In 2023, she was selected as one of the ART.CO.ZA Artists to Watch. Other accolades include two silver medals for the SA Wine and Beer Label Awards (2021, 2022) for collaborative projects and being a finalist for the StateoftheArt Gallery Award (2019). Van Heerden has completed residencies at Cité Internationale des Arts Paris (2020, 2023), Cape Town Art Residency (2023) and David Krut Projects in Johannesburg (2021). Van Heerden has served as a member of the board of the Arts Association of Bellville, Cape Town (2018–2019) and the Friends of the Iziko South African National Gallery (2019–2024). With camera in hand, van Heerden sets out to discover, explore and document environments, with a particular focus on man-made and built environments that work in symbiosis or juxtaposition with the natural world. Her subject matter tends to be urban, natural landscapes, and interior scenes. She paints and draws the photos she takes onto the back of translucent drafting film. She describes her work as a way of reimagining her own life experiences. In 2021, van Heerden completed a residency with David Krut Projects, which culminated in her solo exhibition, Field Trip, in 2022. She has also been featured in a number of group shows at our Johannesburg Gallery, including Alone of Its Kind (2022), Creature Feature (2023), Women in the Workshop (2023-2024) and Still Life: A Contemporary Arangement (2025).