Within South Africa we courier your artwork to your door - the shipping cost will show at the checkout.
When shipping art internationally, two primary options are commonly considered: crated and rolled. Crating involves securely packaging the artwork in a custom-built crate, providing maximum protection against physical damage but often resulting in higher shipping costs due to size and weight. On the other hand, rolling art involves taking stretched paintings off the frame, carefully wrapping the artwork and placing it in a protective tube. This method is more cost-effective and suitable for flexible pieces. Choosing between crating and rolling depends on the specific artwork's size, fragility, and budget, as well as the destination's shipping requirements and regulations.
We will be in touch regarding the best options for you.
Virtual hanging of art is an innovative service we offer that allows art enthusiasts and collectors to visualize how artworks will appear in their desired spaces before making a purchase. We digitally place the selected artworks on your walls, in the correct scale to achieve the desired aesthetic. This service not only helps in making informed decisions but also enhances the overall art-buying experience, providing a realistic preview of the final result and ensuring that the chosen artworks harmonize with the surrounding decor. Please contact us to make use of this service!
This work draws on uNomkhubulwane, the female deity of Zulu cosmology associated with rain, fertility, agriculture and the regenerative power of nature. Rather than presenting her as a distant mythological figure, the composition allows her to emerge directly from the land. Her face dominates the image, while her upward gaze suggests an awareness of the sky and the promise of rain. The close cropping gives her a monumental presence, positioning her as both guardian and embodiment of the landscape.
The surface is deliberately layered, cracked and weathered. The fissures across her skin continue into the surrounding textures, blurring the boundary between body and earth. These cracks recall dry soil waiting for rain, while the fragmented surface suggests erosion, growth and the natural cycles of destruction and renewal. Dripping areas of pigment further evoke rainfall and connect the execution of the work to uNomkhubulwane’s role as a life-giving force.
The palette is dominated by ochres, browns, burnt reds and gold, with accents of turquoise and blue-green. The earth tones connect the figure to soil and cultivation, while the cooler colours suggest water, vegetation and new growth. Gold introduces a sense of sacredness and abundance, transforming the surrounding land into something precious and fertile.
Her layered beaded adornment reinforces her connection to Zulu cultural identity, while the repetition of the beads creates a sense of rhythm, continuity and ancestry.
In its execution, the work appears almost excavated rather than simply painted. Layers seem to have been built up, cracked, stained and reworked, giving the image the feeling of an ancient surface shaped by many seasons.
uNomkhubulwane therefore becomes an image of fertility, endurance and renewal. The cracked earth, flowing colour and emerging female presence express the powerful relationship between woman, rain and land, and the idea that even within dryness and hardship lies the possibility of new life.
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Stephen Symons
Stephen Symons
Stephen Symons was born in 1966 in Cape Town, South Africa, where he currently lives and works. Alongside his visual art practice, he runs a graphic design studio and works as a historian and author. He holds a PhD in History from the University of Pretoria, a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, and a National Higher Diploma in Graphic Design from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. He has had two solo exhibitions, titled Nutria, related to his PhD research at the Castle of the Cape of Good Hope (2017), and at the University of Pretoria (2018), and is an awardwinning author of poetry and short fiction.
Symons’s artistic practice engages the tradition of portraiture as a layered and contested archive rather than a fixed representation of identity. His works challenge the notion of the portrait as a complete and permanent record, instead presenting the face as something constructed through processes of accumulation, erasure, and revision.
Working entirely in a digital medium, Symons creates images that echo the visual language of classical painting and illustration. His compositions often draw on the structure and balance of Old Master portraiture, while his painterly surfaces are built through a highly tactile digital process using a pressure-sensitive tablet. Drips, textures, and gestures are rendered with precision, resulting in works that carry the depth and immediacy of physical paint. It is not uncommon for a single image to consist of over 100 layers, each contributing to a complex interplay of colour, texture, and visual depth.
The richly textured surfaces of his works function as visual palimpsests, built up and reworked to reveal traces of earlier stages. This process reflects his interest in the way history is continually rewritten, with the past remaining present through fragments and residues. By referencing classical portrait conventions while simultaneously disrupting them, Symons questions ideas of visibility, memory, and who is remembered.
Through fragmentation and material tension, his work reflects the complexity of identity and historical truth, inviting the viewer to consider the portrait not as a fixed image, but as an evolving record shaped over time.
Stephen Symons is in South Africa exclusively represented by The Artists Gallery in Cape Town and will show 2026 for the first time internationally with The Travelling Art Gallery.
