YDI COETSEE CARSTENS

Ydi is a South African artist with painting as the main discipline. She completed an MA in Fine Arts at Stellenbosch University with an exchange component in Kampala, East Africa. Her current practice is focused on figurative painting, using traditional oil painting genres like still life, interior, portrait and landscape. Ydi had her first solo exhibition Bly/Stay at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in 2018 and her second at Glen Carlou in 2022. She was a Sasol New Signatures finalist in 2015 and a Top 40 finalist in the Sanlam Portrait Awards in 2017. Growing up in the segregated Reformed Church where her father was a minister continues to influence her art. 


ARTIST STATEMENT

I believe beauty can be subversive when it exposes what we value and what we consider ugly. Re-imagining oil painting in the Sub-Saharan African context demonstrates how figurative painting remains a dynamic and thriving discipline, able to question, destabilize and contemplate culture and what it means to be human.
 
Obvious themes in my work include entropy, place, religion, materiality, phenomenology, belonging and alienation, public spaces.

My studio process involves stitching together and editing photographic sources, drawing, stencilling, masking, scumbling, glazing and sometimes using gold leaf. Artists I admire include Andrew Wyeth, Antonio Lopez Garcia, Andries Gouws and Adriaan van Zyl.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022                   'The Road was Full of Branches',  The Gallery at Glen Carlou, Stellenbosch
2018                    'Bly/Stay', Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
2015                    'Romantic Landscapes', MA exhibition, US Gallery, Stellenbosch

ART FAIRS/FESTIVALS
2023                     Turbine Art Fair, Paper exhibition
2017 & 2019        Woordfees, "Ek sien jou ek is hier",  Die Kruisiging
2019                      Suidoosterfees, 'Vers & Vlam'
2018 & 2019       Grahamstown National Arts festival (Fringe programme)

COMPETITIONS
2023                     Sanlam Portrait Awards, top 40
2017                      Sanlam Portrait Awards, top 40
2017                      Vuleka competition Top 20
2015                      Sasol New Signatures Top 100

EXHIBITIONS
May 2021             "Look me in the eye", Rk Contemporary, Riebeeck-Kasteel
Feb 2021              "Liminal Hiatus", Gallery One 11. Cape Town
Dec 2020           "Subsurface scattering", curated by Clare Menck, Gallery One 11, Cape Town
Dec 2020           "A subtle skill", Knysna Fine Arts, Knysna
Nov 2020           "Subsurface scattering" Porterville museum, Pure Porterville arts festival
Nov 2020           "Apart/A part",  Art-b gallery, Bellville
Oct 2020            Open studios, Rustenburg farm, Stellenbosch
July 2020            "Committee's choice exhibition", Art-b gallery, Bellville
June 2020          "Art in isolation" Imibala gallery, Graaff-Reinet
May 2020           "The Grand", Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
March2020         "Unleavened", Dyman contemporary, Stellenbosch
March 2020        Imibala gallery, Somerset-West
Jan 2020              D-street contemporary art gallery, Stellenbosch 
Dec 2019              Rust-en-vrede-gallery summer sale, Durbanville
Dec 2019              Liebrecht gallery summer salon, Somerset-West
Nov 2019             Knysna Fine arts summer salon, Knysna
July 2019              "Soma", 40 Stones in a wall group show, Graham's town
June 2019             "Seeing the light", Hofmeyer hall, Stellenbosch
June 2010            "Not a portrait", Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
April 2019            "Palette/plate/palet", Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
April 2019            "Home Moods", Liebrecht gallery, Somerset-West
April 2019            "Narratives of place", Mullers gallery, Cape Town 
March 2019         "Ek sien jou ek is hier", Stellenbosch University Woordfees
Dec 2018             Group show, D-street kunskamer, Stellenbosch
Dec 2018              Pictures at an exhibition, Liebrecht Art Gallery, Somerset West
Dec 2018              Forward? Forward! Forward... Stellenbosch University Museum, Stellenbosch
July 2018              The Grand, group show Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
June 2018            40 Stones in a wall group show, Graham's town
June 2018             Magritte group show, Liebrecht Art Gallery, Somerset West
May 2018              60 x 60, member's exhibition, Art-b Gallery, The arts association of Bellville
April 2018            "Water", Group show, Liebrecht Art Gallery, Somerset West
April  2018           ResCape, pop-up exhibition. First Thursdays, Long Street, Cape Town
March 2018         Bly/Stay SOLO,  Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
August 2017        Sanlam Portrait Awards, top 40 exhibition, Rust-en-vrede-gallery, Durbanville
August 2017        Vuleka competition exhibition, Art-b Gallery, The arts association of Bellville
June 2017            'Tiny Treasures annual fundraiser exhibition', Art-b Gallery, The arts association of Bellville
April 2017            “Pniel” Group show as part of Pniel cultural day, Pniel art gallery, Pniel
March 2017         'Die Kruisiging', multidisciplinary production for Woordfees, Endler hall, Stellenbosch
Nov 2016             'Impressions", Installation and discussion of a conceptual artwork at Echo community house Blouberg
Oct 2016               “Art, food and wine pairing”, Loaves on Long, Longstreet, Cape Town
Sept 2016,           'The Grand’ annual exhibition, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
Sept 2016           ' Mono/lino printmaking exhibition with Clare Menck and friends', The arts association of Bellville
August 2016       ‘Landscapes’, pop-up art exhibition at Stellenbosch Gemeente
July 2016             '30 x 30 under 30', Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
June 2016           'Tiny Treasures', Art-b Gallery, The arts association of Bellville
April 2016            'Evanescence/Verduistering, The Tank Gallery, Stellenbosch Hills
March 2016         ‘Barclays L’Atelier Regional Entries, Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville
Sept 2015             ‘Studio exhibition’ at “Remnants of Place”, D-Street Gallery, Stellenbosch
Aug 2015              Sasol New Signatures National Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum
March 2015          'Art (de)code –(re)phrase', D-Street Gallery, Stellenbosch
July 2015              'Tiny Treasures', Art-b Gallery, The arts association of Bellville
April 2015             'Selfportret', The Tank Gallery, Stellenbosch Hills (solo)
Jan 2015               'Romantic Landscapes', MA exhibition, US Gallery, Stellenbosch (solo)
Dec 2014                'Art and Wine', Bernard Boyes wine tasting, Somerset-West
Aug 2014               'Stories and spaces', MA group show, US Gallery, Stellenbosch
May 2013              '60 years - Alumni exhibition', PJ Olivier art centre, Stellenbosch
Jan 2011                'Noli Procrastinare' collaborative art project, Laingsburg