Uwe Pfaff

Uwe Pfaff grew up in Germany and he moved to South Africa in 1970. Initially, he worked as a mechanical design draughtsman while studying painting, graphics and sculpture part-time. He has worked in ceramics and wood, and has produced paintings, drawings and silk-screens. Since 1976 he has participated in numerous exhibitions in South Africa and abroad, and his work is represented in several private collections worldwide, as well as in South African public and corporate collections. Lately, Pfaff has been creating works by cutting through steel with a cutting torch and making lacy configurations of images, designs and surfaces of wandering doodles. The lines between the negative and the positive, between a figure and a surface, or between night and day are blurred – the spaces between the metal are just as important as the shapes are when the works are viewed. Pfaff’s exploration is as much light-hearted curiosity and visual delight as it is serious investigation of art principles.

Uwe Pfaff bring sy grootwordjare in Duitsland deur en verhuis in 1970 na Suid-Afrika. Aanvanklik werk hy as ’n meganiese ontwerptekenaar en studeer deeltyds skilderkuns, drukgrafiek en beeldhoukuns. Hy werk ook in keramiek en hout, en skep syskermdrukke, skilderye en tekeninge. Sedert 1976 neem hy aan verskeie uitstallings in Suid-Afrika en in die buiteland deel. Sy werk word in talle private versamelings hier en oorsee, asook in Suid-Afrikaanse korporatiewe en openbare versamelings, aangetref. In die laaste tyd maak Pfaff kunswerke deurdat hy staal met ’n blaasvlam sny en so kantagtige ontwerpe en oppervlaktes van dwalende krabbels skep. Die skeiding tussen die negatiewe en die positiewe, die figuur en die oppervlak, nag en dag vervaag – vir die kyker is die oop ruimte tussen die metaal net so belangrik soos die vorms self. Pfaff se kunsverkenningstogte is uit lighartige nuuskierigheid en visuele plesier gebore, maar dit is terselfdertyd ernstige ontginnings van kunsbeginsels.