Sara Gaqa

Sara Gaqa was born in 1980 in a small town called Geldern in the very west of Germany where she spent most of her early childhood years. Growing up in Teheran/Iran for a couple of years where her father originates from, was an important time in her life. She always had a keen interest in art and design and started painting on canvas at the age of only 14.

In 2000 Sara decided to study natural science and finished her master's in Biology in 2006. Shortly after, she met her husband while traveling through South Africa and decided to move to Cape Town in 2008 and left the field of science. Since 2015 she fully followed her passion for art and established quickly her career as an artist. Today, Sara Gaqa lives in Hout Bay near Cape Town together with her family.

As a completely self-taught artist, Sara Gaqa draws her inspiration from all that surrounds her. Especially fascination with African culture and its people influence her strong artworks. Through her marriage to the Xhosa culture, she was able to gain more insight into African heritage and myths. The magic of Africa is combined with the gold of the Orient as well as the European love for simplicity.

Sara Gaqa’s art is usually not one that dominates the room but is rather intended to harmonize with its environment, yet sending out a powerful message touching the careful observer. Soft and bright colours, as well as textures, are used to show faces in a combination of sketched lines, expressive brush strokes, and detailed finishes, all complementing each other. Her portraits are meant to speak to the observer, communicating a feeling, a moment in time, or a memory.

Sara prefers to work with oil, sometimes in combination with other media such as acrylic. Using brushes and the pallet knife, she tries to find a fine balance between naturalistic and abstract elements.

She showed at ART Innsbruck, an Art Fair in Austria among numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally. As an artist, she is an integral part of The Travelling Art Gallery and this is evident from the fact that she has been featured in exhibitions in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Ludwigshafen, Munich, Kassel, and Palma de Mallorca.

In South Africa, she is represented and exclusively showing at The Artists Gallery Cape Town.