Held, in Line explores the dynamic exchange between one of South Africa's most celebrated artists, Diane Victor, and a group of participants from her renowned Winter Workshop. Held over five intensive days in an icy wine shed on the historic Muratie Wine Estate outside Stellenbosch, the workshop is designed to unsettle certainty and heighten perception. It is an environment where rigorous discipline and experimental play coexist, encouraging participants to relinquish habitual ways of seeing in favour of deeper visual inquiry.

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Victor believes that moments of difficulty and discomfort sharpen concentration and compel artists to negotiate the visual world with greater honesty and sensitivity. The process begins with the construction of a sculptural assemblage composed of ordinary objects drawn from each participant's own life, guided by conceptual prompts such as The Avatarial Self or My Lifeboat. These intimate structures become fertile ground for a series of drawing exercises through which participants investigate not only personal narratives, but also the formal language of line, tone, texture, rhythm and spatial relationships.

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With a background in horse training, Victor possesses an extraordinary sensitivity to observation, patience and instinct. One cannot help but wonder whether this experience informs her remarkable understanding of human nature—our search for belonging, meaning and self-awareness. While her own work is celebrated for its technical brilliance and often unsettling psychological intensity, her presence as a mentor is characterised by generosity, gentleness and profound attentiveness. She meets each participant where they are, intuitively recognising what lies beneath the surface and guiding them towards discoveries that are as personal as they are artistic.

The works gathered in Held, in Line bear witness to this remarkable process. Rather than presenting students who imitate their teacher, the exhibition reveals thirty distinct artistic voices held in conversation with Victor's own practice—connected by a shared commitment to observation, vulnerability and the transformative potential of drawing.