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South African visual artist Alexander Knox

Alexander Knox

Cape Town | 3 artworks for sale

  • Shelter - Painting by Alexander Knox Shelter
    Painting / 70 x 95 cm
    R25 000
  • The Farmer - Painting by Alexander Knox The Farmer
    Painting / 70 x 95 cm
    R25 000
  • How We Live Now - Painting by Alexander Knox How We Live Now
    Painting / 70 x 95 cm
    R25 000
  • The Way We Live Now II - Painting by Alexander Knox
    The Way We Live Now II
    Painting / 70 x 95 cm
Alexander's imaginative realism paintings portray his vision of a dystopian post-apocalyptic future brought on by mankind's recklessness. His portraits depict an inhabitant in a hostile environment, their harsh living conditions and the devastation of the world around them.

“Depending on my subjective response, they works range from being visceral to more emotional, and always portray a plausible situation with a sense of realism. I am inspired by apocalyptic themed computer games and films, my imagination and the entropy of modern society. The subject matter, both people and settings, is arrived at through photographs I have taken in and around Cape Town and other parts of South Africa, yet the result does not specifically represent a South African post-apocalypse. The locations are chosen to be of universal reference and make the viewer wonder where - and when - this will happen.”

Alexander Knox (b.1994) is a portrait and landscape painter based in Cape Town, South Africa. He graduated from Ruth Prowse School of Art in 2015  and has participated in various art fairs and group exhibitions in Cape Town and Johannesburg.  The artist is a top 40 finalist of the Sanlam Portrait Award 2017 and 2019, as well as the 2021 Portrait Award.

Selected Exhibitions:

2024
Group exhibition 'The Shipping Forecast' , StateoftheART Gallery, Cape Town

2021
Portrait Award top 40,  Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town
Group exhibition 'National Identity',  curated by COart  in Barcelona, Spain

2019
Solo exhibition 'Utopia Has Been Cancelled', AVA Gallery, Cape Town
Sanlam Portrait Award Top 40,  Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town

2017
Sanlam Portrait Award Top 40, Rust en Vrede Gallery, Cape Town
Art Africa Fair, Cape Town

2016
That Art Fair, Cape Town
Group exhibition at DF Contemporary, Cape Town
Group exhibition at Rust en Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg

Which new trends or South African artists do you find inspiring at the moment?
Deborah Poynton, whom I have been compared to.

Which South African deceased artist do you most admire and why?
Walter Meyer, as he was so successful.

If you could only have one piece of art in your life, what would it be?
Caspar David Friedrich - Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

How did you get started? Did you always want to be an artist?
Art was my favourite subject in high school, but I didn't really have the ambition of becoming an artist until my final year at Ruth Prowse School of Art when my potential was unlocked.

Where do you get your inspiration for your work?
From playing post-apocalyptic video games such as S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl and Fallout 3.

Do you have any rituals or habits involving your art-making that you can tell us about?
Every piece involves shooting the subject, photoshopping them onto the background, priming the panel 3-5 times, then applying grids and outlines to the surface. My preferred technique is to work in layers from dark to light.

What do you like most about being an artist?
Doing what I want.

Do you have a favourite or most meaningful work?
Fading Light (2017), which was my first chiaroscuro painting.

What is your greatest achievement as an artist to date?
Entering the Sanlam Portrait Award for the first time in 2017 and making it into the top 40.

What are your aspirations for the future?
To have a solo exhibition and hopefully get into the Portrait Award top 5.