Corné Eksteen

Corné Eksteen was born in Zastron in the Free State in 1973. He studied towards a BA in Fine Art at the University of Pretoria and the University of South Africa.

Before Eksteen established his career as a respected full-time artist, he spent several years working in creative fields, from menswear design to interior decorating and digital design. All this has shaped him, the artist whose talent, technique, and style are remarkable. Eksteen lives in the Free State and has been actively working and successfully exhibiting as a Visual Artist since 1996.

His work relies on both figurative and abstract painting traditions in the creation of pieces that not only represent the physical appearance of his sitters but also reflect on and explore their inner life and state of mind. “The works attempt to visually dissect and deconstruct the subject matter in the pursuit of an understanding of the dynamics and transient nature of the 21st-century psyche,” he says. “They are intended to evoke discussion on the idea of personal identity as a series of disjointed concepts in a continuous state of flux. A search for new archetypes for the 21st century.”

Works are created through a process that includes several sessions with a sitter, followed by digital manipulation of reference materials before the actual painting is started. Paintings are created using several often experimental techniques and rely on finding a balance between the transparent and opaque, dark and light, the controlled and the expressive. The completed images are seemingly simplistic but confront on many levels with their raw emotional complexity.

Every now and then Eksteen changes the style of his portraits completely, exploring new areas of expression and developing a new, deeper theme. Eksteen works in chapters and it is hard to not become addicted.

Some successful solo exhibitions in his art career are a testament to his extraordinary talent and popularity, establishing him as an internationally known artist.

In 2019 Eksteen was the best-selling artist at ARTMUC art fair from all artists represented by ARTsouthAFRICA.
Since 2018 Eksteen’s work has been featured in all exhibitions of The Travelling Art Gallery, including Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, and Palma de Mallorca.

In Cape Town, Corné Eksteen is represented by The Artists Gallery.