DANIEL NAUDÉ

Naudé was born in 1984 in Cape Town, where he continues to live. He graduated with a BA Visual Arts Honours degree from the University of Stellenbosch in 2007. Since then, his stellar career has encompassed group and solo exhibitions on four continents. His work is in major museum, corporate and private collections internationally including the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) collection. Some of his major commissions include the horses of the Oppenheimer family and the Ankole cattle of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Simply put, the animal is unpretentious. Animals do not pose, they merely exist. We attach meaning to animals, we read them as the carriers of our stories. And yet our own existence depends on them, and we cannot live without them. How we see animals are more telling of ourselves than of them. On a personal level when I meet them and see them through my viewfinder, something happens that gives me a better idea of my own existence. It adds substance to my understanding of what it means to exist.

It is important to approach the landscape and the animal with an open mind. In many ways, it comes down to the process of exploration, which is my drive and my fuel. I have also learned to be receptive towards and slowly immerse myself in my working environment. I always try to find the perfect balance between mindfulness and abandonment that comes from being in nature. To me it is a moment of stillness, a place where I am able to rest with the landscape and the animal. – From The Bovine Prophecy