Lizelle Kruger was born in Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape in 1963. Her childhood included regular journeys through Namibia and the arid landscapes of the Cape, experiences that developed her lasting fascination with unusual rock formations, wide-open spaces and the traces people leave on the land. She studied at the Technikon Orange Free State from 1982 to 1983 before continuing at Cape Technikon, where she completed a National Diploma in Fine Art in 1984. She received awards for progress in fine art and for sculpture and ceramics during her studies.
Kruger works across oil, acrylic, charcoal, pastel, watercolour, drawing, mixed media, sculpture and ceramics. This broad technical background has enabled her to move between intimately scaled paintings, large figurative works, sculptural installations and public commissions. After graduating, she worked as a graphic artist in the South African Defence Force’s production department. She also completed sculptural and mural commissions, including a ceramic mural measuring seven by 2.3 metres for the Armscor building. Her murals and sculptures can still be found at several military headquarters around South Africa.
The Karoo became the foundation of Kruger’s most recognisable body of work. She regularly returns to the areas around Sutherland, Merweville, the Koup and the Tankwa Karoo to photograph people, buildings, landscapes and found objects. These photographs are later cropped and combined in the studio to develop the carefully constructed compositions from which she paints. The Karoo Kado’tjies series draws on family history and childhood memory as much as physical place. Weathered domestic objects and abandoned structures represent both endurance and impermanence, while the recurring bonneted woman allows Kruger to explore her identity as an Afrikaner woman and the cultural expectations attached to that inheritance.
Another important body of work turns towards the history of Cape Town. Using a more subdued palette and looser combinations of charcoal and oil, Kruger revisits street life in the city from the 1920s to the 1960s. Historical scenes involving District Six, forced removals, dockside life and the women associated with the city’s “Sugar Houses” are brought into conversation with Cape Town’s present. Her 2018 solo exhibition, Cape Town Memoirs and Dangerous Liaisons, placed women at the centre of the city’s history. The exhibition paid tribute to enslaved women, indigenous Khoi communities, the women of District Six and others whose labour and experiences have often been overlooked in conventional historical accounts.
Kruger was a finalist in the Volkskas Atelier Competition in 1989 and 1991 and in the Brett Kebble Art Awards in 2003. Her exhibition history includes solo presentations at The Cape Gallery, Salon 91 and the Castle of Good Hope, along with group exhibitions in South Africa, Ireland and Dubai. Her work has also appeared in Home Is Where the Art Is at Zeitz MOCAA. Paintings by Kruger are held in private collections in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Australia, the United States, Singapore, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates.
Across her practice, Kruger brings personal memory and South African history together, revealing beauty and meaning in landscapes, people and objects that might otherwise be forgotten.
Selected Exhibitions and Awards
- 2018 — Cape Town Memoirs and Dangerous Liaisons, solo exhibition, StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town
- 2011 — Solo exhibition, The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
- 2011 — Solo exhibition, Salon 91 Contemporary Art Collection, Cape Town
- 2008 — Group exhibition, Salon 91 Contemporary Art Collection, Cape Town
- 2008 — Women in Art, group exhibition, Mondo Arte Gallery, Dubai, UAE
- 2007 — Group exhibition, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town
- 2007 — Summer group exhibition, Oisin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
- 2006 — Group exhibition, Oisin Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
- 2003 — Solo exhibition, The Cape Gallery, Cape Town
- 1996 — Group exhibition, The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town
- 1994 — Solo exhibition, Riversdale
- 1993 — SANDF group exhibition, Pretoria
