die oORDE van wOORDE
A selection of landscapes by MJ Lourens
In this presentation of paintings and prints, MJ Lourens explores ten evocative Afrikaans words through the quiet, enduring language of landscape. Afrikaans, a language shaped by a troubled history yet alive with invention, intimacy and extraordinary expression, becomes both subject and medium. These paintings consider the spaces between what is spoken and what remains unsaid — the weight of memory, the beauty of place, and the possibility of a language continuing to evolve. Ten words. Ten landscapes. A celebration of a language that, despite its history and the scrutiny it carries, remains vibrant, deeply human and cautiously hopeful.
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Born in Pretoria in 1973, MJ Lourens is a South African multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses painting, sculpture and film. He studied Fine Art Sculpture at the University of Pretoria from 1992 to 1996, and in 1995 was awarded the Sasol New Signatures Competition at the Pretoria Art Gallery.
Now based in Cape Town, Lourens has exhibited extensively in South Africa and abroad, with a career spanning three decades. His work is held in notable public and private collections, including the South African Reserve Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Pretoria Art Museum, Telkom SA, Unisa, Nando’s UK and De Grendel.
His paintings transform the landscape into something more than a place. Through atmospheric light, cinematic skies and quiet, surreal interventions, Lourens explores memory, belonging and the uneasy relationship between the familiar and the unknown. His landscapes are at once beautiful and contemplative — places where the external world becomes an emotional terrain.
die oORDE van Woorde
This exhibition presents a new body of ten paintings inspired by the evocative vocabulary of Afrikaans. Each work considers a word as a landscape of its own: shaped by history, memory and the possibilities of meaning.
For collectors, Die Oorde van Woorde offers the opportunity to acquire an original painting by MJ Lourens, or a limited edition print of one of the ten works.
Ten paintings. Ten words. A new chapter in the landscape of MJ Lourens.
Enquiries and collector preview registration are now open through Hugo Modern.
