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STANLEY HERMANS, born in 1963, lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa, where he has completed three significant public commissions. He left UCT in 1991 with an MA in painting, and since then has had eight solo exhibitions.

After stints as the art critic and columnist for the Cape Times, Hermans initiated a writing project in partnership with the HSRC that brought to the public’s attention South Africa’s better and lesser known iconic artists in the form of full page interviews with the likes of Nadine Gordimer, Helen Sebidi, Hugh Masekela, Nesta Nala, Sam Nghlengetwa, David Koloane, Jay Pather, Sibongile Khumalo and others. He has illustrated two children’s books and is currently completing a novel.

He works in a range of genre, including the representational or figurative, as in the still life, peopled and metaphorical interiors, the landscape, and pure abstractions.


Summary of Commissions and Collections

1. The still life
Two recent acquisitions, the South African Reserve Bank Collection.

2. The metaphorical interior
Mostly in private collections, the permanent collection of The South African National Gallery, the Durban Art Gallery, the Sanlam and Sasol collections.

3. The landscape
Mostly in private collections, one large commissioned landscape at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

4. Peopled interiors
Mostly in private collections, one large commissioned work at the Ernest Oppenheimer Building on the upper campus of UCT (an allegorical mural in the Ernest Oppenheimer Building depicting an African interpretation of the last supper), also Rand Merchant Bank, the CSIR and IDC.

5. Abstractions
Mostly in private collections here and in Paris, one large commissioned abstract assemblage on the Robben Island Museum inspired by the calls and responses between Aristotle’s political logic and contemporary African politics.