Artist Database

Norman Catherine attended the East London (South Africa) Technical College Art School from 1967 to 1968 where he completed an art matric. During the 1980s he lived in Los Angeles and New York and he currently lives at Hartbeespoort Dam, North West Province.

His prodigious output has been engaging art enthusiasts since 1969 when he held his first solo exhibition in Johannesburg. He works in various media including painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, wall hangings and bronze and has exhibited extensively in South Africa and internationally. His work is included in numerous local private, museum and corporate collections as well as in the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum collections in the USA.

Catherine’s art projects a dystopian vision of the socio-political landscape. History, horror, crime, conflict, psychoses and politics all serve as stimuli for his creative output, which vacillates between the macabre and the comic, between a gasp and a giggle. He conveys his cynical vision through a juxtaposition of dark and light sensibilities that veer between an internal hallucinatory realm and a literal commentary on the external world. He rebels against any dogma or rigid definition, including of his own work.