Anna van der Ploeg (b. 1992, South Africa) is a contemporary artist whose interdisciplinary practice spans printmaking, painting and sculpture, weaving together material and metaphor to explore the spaces between the universal and the intimate. Her works are visually captivating yet conceptually layered, inviting reflection on sincerity, discomfort and the unseen forces that shape human interaction. Often soft and harmonious in palette yet rich in texture, van der Ploeg’s compositions embody a delicate balance; tender and unsettling.
Drawing on her background as a beekeeper, van der Ploeg frequently incorporates the veiled figure and swarm as recurring motifs, symbols of power, fragility and collective order. Her use of diverse materials; wax, rust, metal, ink, wood and paper, enables her to investigate her subjects from multiple perspectives, while the Japanese water-based woodblock printmaking technique mokuhanga, learned during a residency in Japan, brings subtle depth and layered translucency to her imagery. Whether revealing or concealing, her works hold a quiet intensity, speaking to relationships between self and landscape, internal and external worlds and the subtle, shifting moments that bind them.
Van der Ploeg has exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at SMITH, Cape Town, and has undertaken residencies in France, India, and Japan. She was a finalist in the Sasol New Signatures Art Competition (2015) and has received accolades including Dean’s Merit List (2014), Silver Award, De Beers English Olympiad (2010), Student Head of Art, St Cyprian’s (2010), Arts and Culture Prize (2006) and Micklefield School Art Cup (2005).
"[My practice] is all about relationships, the subtle actions they are shaped by, and the way interactions are perceived differently by each person or thing involved. Sometimes it’s about the relationship of an internal self to the external landscape; other times it is captivated by how our two internals are vastly different while experiencing the same external. Often it is an attempt to understand how power and inequality function, how they diffuse into seemingly insidious scenarios. Movement, and capturing a moment in a state of change, is one tool I use to explore this."