PAULA LOUW
(b. 1951 South Africa)

Paula Louw is a full time artist, also teaching from her studio. She works in both two and three dimensions. She exhibits regularly and has been making art since she was a small child. 

Since 2006, Louw has been involved in making art that is conceptual, much of which has to do the disassembling of machines, typewriters, guns, pianos and sewing machines. She also paints and draws. Her conceptual emphasis is on communication and peace.

Louw has works in a number of private collections in South Africa as well as the UK, France, Australia and the USA.

Her work has recently moved in a new direction, which can be seen in the 2016 exhibition Gently does it. Here she has made 'soft' guns, sewn and created from fabric. Regarding these, she states:

"The antithesis of all that one would normally consider a gun to be, the R5, revolver and R1 have been de-natured, are redemptive. 

Having been stitched together, they contradict any ideas we might have concerning these weapons in a traditional sense. Colour, texture, shape, lines and curves, they could be the same deadly objects, but they present a very different aspect. They're loaded with hurt... wounds and tears have been stitched and mended, healing has been sought and rendered. 

Sewing, normally considered the proclivity of women, is the means of creation, causing these objects to take on a curiously feminine energy. They have been rendered completely harmless and present to us soft, even rather cuddly objects, like a soft toy or teddy bear. 

They can no longer be loaded, cocked, nor the trigger pulled. They have been silenced. 

Paradoxically, we sense the deadly layers of meaning whose legacy history has conferred, whose dark weight drags these objects deeply into the softness of the pillow."

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

2020
Bronze, Steel, Stone & Bone, Everard Read, London, UK

2017
Summer Exhibition, Everard Read London, UK

2016
Gently does it, Solo exhibition, Knysna Fine Art Gallery, Knysna
Summer Exhibition, Circa Gallery, London
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg

2015
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg

2014
Anthology, Solo exhibition, Everard Read, Rosebank
Anthology, Solo exhibition, Everard Read, Rosebank

2011
Redeconstructivist, Solo exhibition, Circa Gallery, Rosebank
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg

2010
'In Part’ solo exhibition, Fried Gallery, Pretoria
Group show, iArt Gallery, Cape Town
'Current matters – Different opinions’ group art exhibition, Franschoek
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg
Absa Group Exhibition, Klein Karoo Nationale Kunsfees, Oudtshoorn

2009
‘New works’ exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Rosebank
Blue Door Studio Etching Exhibition, David Brown Fine Art, Rosebank
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg

2008
Group Exhibition, Knysna Fine Art, South Africa
Celebration: Group Exhibition, Cool Art, Parkhurst, South Africa
Intervention : Group Exhibition, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
Gordart Group Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa
Jo’burg Art Fair, Everard Read exhibition stand, Johannesburg, South Africa

2007/08 
Installation, Adler Medical School Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa

2006
Soft Return, MA Solo Show, Everard Read Gallery, Rosebank, South Africa

2005
Group Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Rosebank, South Africa

2003
Plug-Ins Art Exhibition, Aardklop Art Festival, South Africa

2002
Retrospective Student Exhibition, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
Exhibition, Sasol Wax Art Competition, South Africa
New Signatures Competition, Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa

2001 - 2002
Final Year Exhibition, UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa 

2001
New Signatures Competition, Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa
Interart Exhibition of Contemporary Art,  Spark! Gallery, United States

2000
New Signatures Competition, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
UNISA Student Exhibition,  UNISA Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Art and the Body Exhibition, UNISA Art Gallery Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 

1999
UNISA Student Exhibition, African Window Museum Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa 

1997
Group Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa 

1994
Group Exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa 

1981
Group Exhibition, Brakpan City Hall, Brakpan, South Africa

1978
Traveling Student Exhibition, Australia

1976
Johannesburg College of Art Student Exhibition, Carlton Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

EDUCATION:

2007
MAFA (with distinction), University of the Witwatersrand

2002
BAFA (practical with distinction), UNISA

1977
Pretoria Technikon, Fine Art Diploma