Klaré van Heerden

Klaré van Heerden (b. 1999) is a South African artist and academic whose practice unfolds along two parallel paths: KMVH and Klaré van Heerden. Together, they form a single body of work grounded in emotion, nature, and the complexity of the human psyche.

Under Klaré van Heerden, she works as a transdisciplinary artist who explores trauma, survival, and the human condition through sculptural paintings and material experimentation. Her practice draws on paint, wax, wire, fynbos, karoo plants, and medical gauze to create large-scale works that attend to the emotional textures of lived experience. These pieces are shaped by her personal history and by her ongoing academic research in religion, philosophy, and healing. They offer viewers a visceral encounter with suffering and resilience, creating spaces of recognition and solace for those navigating trauma, especially survivors of gender based violence. This strand of her practice foregrounds the transformative potential of creativity and the slow work of tending to emotional wounds.

Under KMVH, van Heerden turns to the landscape as a mirror for the inner world. Her Ocean Series uses charcoal and acrylic on canvas and wood to translate stillness, grief, and transformation into the visual rhythms of the sea. These works are rooted in direct encounters with the ocean and shaped by her research in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religion. Central to this practice is the oceanic feeling, a psychological and spiritual sense of dissolving into something vast and unbounded. Through this contemplative engagement with water and movement, the KMVH work becomes a meditation on the fragile and resilient nature of the self.

Together these two practices are united by a commitment to depth, introspection, and the search for meaning within both the natural world and the human psyche. Van Heerden’s academic training in Fine Art and Religious Studies at the University of Cape Town, as well as her current Master’s in Philosophy and Religion, informs both strands of her work. Whether through sculptural forms or oceanic landscapes, her art invites viewers into a quiet space of reflection, recognition, and emotional resonance.