Diek Grobler is an award-winning South African artist working in a variety of media and disciplines – including painting, illustration, performance art, and animation.
If forced to classify his work, the term Magic Realism gets closest to what he attempts to achieve. Grobler’s work is inspired by seemingly insignificant common occurrences which, when scrutinized more closely, contain human drama. Everyday ideas are placed in new and unusual contexts, heightening their ‘strangeness’.
A recurring theme is the relationship between spirituality and reality with the use of biblical narratives depicted in a contemporary context. Humour and irony are the tools he uses to subvert expectation.
Grobler has exhibited professionally since 1988 and works in a variety of media and disciplines: ceramic sculpture, oil, and gouache paintings, scraperboard drawings, performance art, computer aided 2D animation and stop-motion animation.
Diek lives and works in Pretoria, South Africa.
