Juanita Oosthuizen

Juanita Oosthuizen, born in Calvinia and raised in the Cape platteland, has always been driven by a passion for creativity, not only in art, but in daily life. From an early age, she experimented with paper, cloth, and plastic, motivated by a desire to reimagine and transform the ordinary. Her creative path was shaped by careful observation and questioning of the world around her. A pivotal moment occurred during a visit to the Tate Modern in London, where a tiny, minimalist artwork featuring a small figure in a vast space deeply resonated with her and later influenced her own artistic direction.

In the 1990s, after a formative trip to Europe, she began working with sheet polypropylene while employed at a corporate gifts company. This discovery led her to found Pepper Plum Designs in 1998, specialising in innovative corporate and retail products made from PVC and polypropylene. Her imaginative yet functional designs were regularly featured at Design Indaba.

Since 2013, Oosthuizen has focused on her career as a professional artist, embracing a minimalist aesthetic that explores time, memory, and human experience. She creates intimate three-dimensional box-framed works using miniature figurines placed in carefully constructed scenes made from board and paper. Working primarily in black, white, and grey, with subtle touches of colour, her pieces evoke moods that are surreal, wistful, playful, or contemplative. She sometimes incorporates old photographs as nostalgic backdrops or creates commissioned works based on clients’ personal memories.

More recently, she has expanded into paper weaving, fragmenting and reassembling images so they remain recognisable yet transformed, “broken but healed.” Her works range from whimsical to deeply emotional, inviting viewers to interpret their own narratives through the body language and relationships of the figurines.

Juanita Oosthuizen is represented by The Artists Gallery in Cape Town.