Zandri Oosthuysen

Zandri Oosthuysen is a South African artist and art historian. Born in the Eastern Cape and raised in Cape Town, she currently resides in Johannesburg. Oosthuysen studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, obtaining a Master’s degree in 2016 as well as a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) in 2014. Whilst studying, she also lectured and tutored art history at Wits University. Oosthuysen specialises in painting, drawing, and photography – working primarily with ink, acrylics, and oils. Oosthuysen has had her work both commissioned and acquired for a number of individuals’ private collections. Her work currently engages with the notion of ‘Memento Mori’ – the Latin phrase meaning ‘remember, you will die’. Her fascination with this stems from her experience of processing her own mortality. This subject, closely related to Vanitas still life, was prevalent during the Renaissance and Baroque. The genre featured symbols pointing to mortality - encouraging reflection on the transience of life. With a current focus on antelope skulls indigenous to South Africa, rather than typical human skulls, her work situates this concept within a South African context. Oosthuysen uses their remains as a still life to contemplate mortality and to flesh out these ideas of life and death.