SHANY VAN DEN BERG | What a Flower Knows

REQUEST CATALOGUE

14 November - 5 December 2026
Everard Read at Leeu Estates
Dassenberg Road, Franschhoek

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, 14 November @ 11am.

A shift in light, a turn of the seasons – nothing blooms without this seasonal change, and a flower knows this.

In this new collection of work, beauty and transience find their common thread in a vase of flowers, a reclining figure and birds in flight; the fleeting beauty and elegant, inevitable decline of a flower, the quiet but brief moment of a figure's repose, perhaps interrupted by the flash of a bird in the sky…

What a Flower Knows explores the formal and symbolic dialogue between the human form and the natural world. In both my paintings and bronze sculpture I arrange flowers in vases and figures in gardens with a similar eye for composition, marrying the curve of a voluptuous vase to the sensuous curves of a female body and the soft petals of a flower. Using negative space to define both leaf and limb, my intention is to create a sense of harmonious tension: a conversation where the cultivated and the wild, the temporary and the timeless, exist in a single, balanced frame. My large-scale figurative bronze Gaia epitomises this idea – the bronze female form enveloped in flowers and vines, surrendering to nature and the untamed world around her.

My artistic practice draws on the traditions of still life painting as well as my own personal childhood memories, gardening with my mother and playing in fields of daisies. It is also nourished by my enduring love of gardens and walking in nature – listening to the wind, looking through the layers of fynbos around my hometown and finding the horizon from atop the mountains.

I am also influenced by the wider world, particularly those parts marked by war and widespread uncertainty. A vase just barely balancing a heavy floral arrangement, standing on the edge of a table, constitutes a subtle but timely metaphor, reminding us all of the delicate fragility of life. This theme is extended further in my bronze-cast vases, where each leaf is frozen in time, yet remains in constant dialogue with the fresh flowers that will inevitably decompose over time.

I draw on and reimagine the historical genres of the still life and the nude, placing them in a contemporary context that is inextricably linked to my life and state of mind. When I conjure my female figure, inspired by Giorgione or Velazquez, as a reclining figure in an inner garden, it is as if I myself yearn for rest. I set about painting a floral still life not by direct observation of an actual floral arrangement, but rather through a composition that emerges from emotion and memory.

The use of oil paint is essential in this exploration, combining the richness of layered brushwork and impasto to build a tangible sense of life and texture with delicate, thin glazes of paint that capture an ethereal quality, evoking a sense of timelessness and stillness. Building layers of light and colour, I strive to capture not just an image, but a composed feeling.

Ultimately, What a Flower Knows is a personal refuge. It is an invitation to step away from the noise of the modern world and to let the floriography of nature speak for itself. Viewers are therefore invited to engage with this exhibition as a quiet space for reflection and observation, and in doing so, to recognise and appreciate the sublime natural world that surrounds us all.

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Sunday 10:00 - 17:00

If you are looking to add to your collection and you are unable to make it to our gallery during operating hours, please contact us via fgallery@everard.co.za to make an appointment outside of these hours.