Artists of Walker Bay Modern Art.
Dave Robertson

Dave Robertson 

 

Born in Zimbabwe and based in Cape Town, Dave Robertson is a 

self-taught abstract painter, photographer and printmaker, who spent the 

early part of his artistic journey, working in the film industry as an art-director. 

In between film projects he would follow his passion for photography, which 

was primarily a form of social commentary often concerned with 

documenting marginalised lifestyles.

 

After winning a national award at Spier Contemporary 2010, for  

'Paper Trails’, a photographic project documenting urban recyclers 

in Johannesburg, he took a break from both photography and the 

film industry to focus on painting. His first solo exhibition of abstract 

paintings was with Worldart Gallery, Cape Town in 2011. 

 

Since then Robertson’s paintings have been acquired by a variety of international collectors from the UK, Sweden, Australia and the USA. Local collectors include 

the South African Foundation for Contemporary Art (SAACA), AFDA, Nando’s 

and Spier Arts Trust.

 

My creative process relies on my ability to react to whatever marks, gestures
or brush strokes I make previously. I paint, then react to what is in front of me,
attempting to resolve the visual situation I have created. Working in this way,
often on several artworks simultaneously and operating with varying degrees of confidence and uncertainty, I attempt to discover what the painting is trying to
say to me. Presence and energy are important aspects in this process, which aims
to convert something inert into something that can be responded to emotionally.
My paintings are often concerned with the in-between spaces which are not immediately apparent but can be found just under the ‘skin’ of the perceived physical world.
A place where fact and fiction, objectivity and subjectivity  join hands in a magical dance, where our so-called physical reality seemingly invites aspects of the
metaphysical world to show themselves in the work.”