The role of female artists is paramount in the field of South African art. The New Group included Irma Stern, Maggie Laubser, Cecil Higgs, and Maud Sumner, who are among South Africa’s most well-known female pioneer painters. In early twentieth-century South African art circles, lesser-known artists such as Dorothy Kay, the Everard Group, and Eleanor Esmonde-White played a significant role.

So, here are some of the best female South African artists.

Maggie Lausber

Laubser was prominent at the time for introducing Post-Impressionism and Expressionism techniques and sensibility to South African painting. Her vibrant colours and compositions, as well as her strongly personal point of view, outraged many with outdated ideas about what was acceptable art at the time.

Judith Mason

Despite South Africa’s political isolation from the rest of the world, Mason was chosen to represent the country at the Venice Biennale and international art exhibitions such as Art Basel. She returned to South Africa after living and teaching in Florence, Italy, and her work was included into South African school and university curricula.

Penny Siopis

Throughout her career, Penny Siopis has explored femininity and history through rich, allusive paintings, installations, photography, and other conceptual works. She used collage and assemblage techniques to break up direct depictions of colonial history in South African textbooks and introduce references to colonial historical portrayals. Her work can be found in all the best art galleries in Cape Town.

Jane Alexander

Jane was born in 1959 and is best known for her sculpture “The Butcher Boys,” which was created in response to the South African state of emergency in the late 1980s. The majority of her works are inspired by and influenced by South Africa’s political and social landscape.

PHUMZILE BUTHELEZI

Phumzile Buthelezi creates collages and sculptures using textiles to depict pictures of women, believing that women have lived in depravity, accumulating our own experiences.

Her belief in the power of tales drives her to use her art to empower women, including herself, her own daughter, and other women’s daughters. Buthelezi is determined to challenge the existing quo through her pieces, despite the hardships of the tales.

Ellis Art House Studios is where she works (Johannesburg). Her work is in private art collections all around the world, and you may buy it from her on Instagram.

Many Coopes Martin

Coppes-Martin studied Fine Art and Photography for nearly 14 years before deciding to pursue art full-time. Her art incorporates a variety of fibres that she has studied for several years and uses to create sophisticated 3D works that have been shown at RMB Rand Merchant Bank, RHMH, ABSA, Sasol, and the Whitman Museum (USA).

Her work is available for purchase via the Parkhurst Art Room, Lizamore and Associates in South Africa, or directly from her.