Catherine Holtzhausen

Catherine Holtzhausen is a collage artist and illustrator. Her lively figures celebrate a bountiful existence crafted from paper textures achieved by watercolour painting, oil-based monotype and collagraph printing methods. 

Holtzhausen’s works stand as a confident challenge to social constructs, particularly the media-molded inner voice of women telling themselves that they are less. Each of Holtzhausen’s pieces honours a humanist moment of joy or playfulness in response to her reflections on class, gender and economy. Celebrations of the female form in all its varieties as well as joyful motifs of healthy, life affirming activities strive to remind the viewer that they are worthy and wonderful.

 Holtzhausen graduated from the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography. She worked briefly as a Graphic Designer before trading her keyboard in for scissors. 

Holtzhausen textures hand-crafted paper with watercolour, oil-based monotype or collagraphy for use in her collages.

THAT SCRAP is Holtzhausen’s first large scale and long-term artistic project and is made up of works produced daily during a time of extreme illness. The work chronicles her attempts to direct, catalogue and reflect upon the influences of class,gender and economy on her life as a young female artist.

Holtzhausen’s works stand as a confident challenge to social constructs,particularly the media-molded inner voice of women telling themselves that they are less. Each of Holtzhausen’s pieces honours a humanist moment of joy or playfulness.

Celebrations of the female form in all its varieties as well as joyful motifs of healthy life affirming activities like gardening, swimming and dancing strive to remind the viewer that they are worthy and wonderful.