New art exhibition, Van Horison tot Horison, opens at La Motte

The La Motte Ateljee is excited to announce Van Horison tot Horison, a new art exhibition opening at its Franschhoek Valley address on 7 March 2026. This exhibition, directly translated as From Horizon to Horizon focuses on the South African landscape by placing contemporary artists in dialogue with historical precedents, embracing the influence and inspiration of both place and legacy, tradition as well as reinterpretation.

The exhibition draws from Lina Spies’s poem Blydskap (see attached) and considers the enduring role of the South African landscape as a site of reflection and inspiration. In her writing, Afrikaans poet and academic, Spies witnesses the resilience of the horizon and the subtle changing of seasons. Her verses are rooted in observation and introspection, forming part of a creative lineage of artists who turned to the South African landscape for their inspiration.

La Motte’s association with renowned South African landscape artist, JH Pierneef is well recorded and the same horizon that inspired his art, is described in Spies’ poetry. Alongside JH Pierneef, Maggie Laubser, and Irma Stern also often turned to the landscape for inspiration, developing visual languages of their own. Pierneef, often referred to as the Cézanne of South Africa, sought to capture the essence of the land in its vastness and stillness. Laubser celebrated the specialness of the ordinary, using an imaginative and emotive colour palette, while Stern depicted the vibrancy and intensity of Africa through bold, expressive brushwork with raw colour and movement.

Van Horison tot Horison acknowledges the historical importance while also inviting contemporary artists to respond and enter the dialogue with both the landscape and the visual language of their predecessors, while shaping their own evolving narratives.

The exhibitions presents fourteen contemporary artists: Alice Toich, Conrad Oosthuizen, Ella Thomson, Emma Willemse, Frances Wedepohl, Inge Semple, Jenny Parsons, Johann Booyens, Joshua Miles, Kristen McClarty, Michael Amery, Rentia Retief, Ros Koch, and Thea Burger. All working across painting, printmaking, sculpture, sound, installation and artist books.

Pierneef’s structured geometry reappears in the precise, composed work of Michael Amery and in the stylised trees of Frances Wedepohl and Joshua Miles. Laubser’s approach to colour echoes in Rentia Retief’s palette, while Stern’s expressive strokes are found in the brushwork of Jenny Parsons and Thea Burger.

The interactive La Motte Ateljee experience also features Emma Willemse’s sculptural boat installation, accompanied by paper pulp drawings, in the centre of the gallery, while the exhibition reaches beyond the visual and tactile with sound artist, Conrad Oosthuizen’s composition of Spies’s Blydskap into a sonic landscape, adding another dimension to reinterpretation. A captivating schedule of workshops has been announced and are open for reservation. (See attached)

Across the exhibition, a shared dialogue unfolds between past and present, landscape and representation, image, text, and sound. Van Horison tot Horison affirms the South African landscape as a continuing source of inspiration, one that invites ongoing interpretation, response, and renewal from one horizon to the next.