Artist Database

Rustenburg-born Walter Oltmann graduated with a MA (Fine Arts) from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in 1985. His main area of creative focus is sculpture and, more particularly, fabricating woven wire forms which sometimes reference local craft traditions. He has completed numerous commissions including chandeliers and lamp shades for the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg in 2003 and the world map interpretation at the Wits Origins Centre in 2005/6. Oltmann has received numerous awards including the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts (2001) and the Sasol Wax Art Award (2007), and his work is widely represented in public and private collections in South Africa and abroad. He has participated in many group shows, including Advance/… Notice at the Goodman Gallery in 2012. His solo exhibitions include Penumbra at the Goodman Gallery in 2013 and In the Weave at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, in 2014, which celebrated three decades of his work and described him as “one of South Africa’s finest and most intriguing artists”. Oltmann was a senior lecturer in the department of Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand before retiring and becoming a full-time artist.

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