What Once Was Broken II

Sara Gaqa

Sara Gaqa was born in Germany in 1980 and is of German and Iranian heritage. Growing up between these cultures shaped her perspective on identity and global belonging. Drawn to art from an early age, she began painting on canvas at 14, a practice that remains central to her life.

In 2000, she pursued the natural sciences, earning a master’s degree in biology in 2006. Gaqa sees art and science as interconnected, both rooted in observation, curiosity, and the desire to understand the world.

While travelling in South Africa in 2006, she met her husband and relocated to Cape Town two years later, where they now live with their daughter in Hout Bay. Leaving her scientific career behind, she embraced full-time art and exhibits both locally and internationally.

Her first experience of Africa left a lasting impression, inspiring her work through the continent’s spiritual energy, rich cultures, and connection to nature and community.

Gaqa’s paintings explore themes of connection, longing, and the search for meaning, sometimes outward toward the unknown or divine, sometimes inward through introspection. Eyes often appear in her work, inviting personal reflection.

Her layered paintings combine oil, acrylic, and gold leaf, incorporating textures, materials, and fragments of poetry, literature, or philosophy to add emotional and conceptual depth.

Gaqa has exhibited widely, including ART Innsbruck, and across South Africa, Europe, and the US. She is part of The Travelling Art Gallery, with exhibitions in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Ludwigshafen, Munich, Kassel, Palma de Mallorca, London, and New York.

In South Africa, she is exclusively represented by The Artists Gallery.