Contemporary South African artist Jozua Gerrard’s figurative paintings capture states of intimacy, unease, vulnerability and contemplation in our post-internet world. With their smooth consistency and saturated lacquer of enamel paint beneath glass, his paintings deftly recall the screens we interact with daily.
Born in Cape Town in 2001, Gerrard forms part of a generation conditioned to pay rapt attention to the experiences that give them pleasure, turning them into stylised rituals for virtual display. Both observed and imagined, his subject matter is drawn from his immediate environment, offering “little windows into people’s existence”. The figures’ solitude within each work echoes the singular nature of the artist’s own commitment to the act of self-enquiry.
Gerrard’s practice is permeated by processes of digital image-making, with photography forming the foundation of his inquiry. His tightly cropped compositions evoke a sense of voyeurism, drawing the viewer into stylised scenes often constructed using friends as models. Through these tableaux, he interrogates the role of fashion, styling, and curated interiors in shaping identity. The resulting photographs are digitised, then translated on to large glass panels, becoming physical simulacra of virtual spaces, grounded in real-life encounters.
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