An artistic return

Harnessing her ample creativity with a healthy dash of eco-consciousness, artist Galia Gluckman has returned to South Africa and with her comes her latest collection, entitled Emerging.

Emerging consists of a selection of collages made up of complex layers of recycled magazines, printed papers and paper shopping bags to create mosaic-like compositions on large pieces of plywood. The result is a unique conceptual structure that is visually tactile.

Galia has always gravitated towards collages. She says she is drawn to the repetitive cutting and pasting that her technique requires and uses the method as a form of meditation. The artist has exhibited numerous times in New York, been featured in many international design publications and has sold pieces to all corners of the globe.

In 2009, Galia was awarded best overall green piece at the World Art Expo in New York City. She was commended for her creative use of recycled papers and low-impact materials in a contemporary collage. As part of the beautification project for the City of Great Neck, New York, Galia was commissioned to design an original artwork for an outside train station project spanning 7.3m x 1.2m.

Galia was born in Israel and raised in Durban. As part of a family with a strong connection to art, textiles and fashion – one that dates back generations – a creative path was inevitable. After completing a fashion qualification with honours from Leggats in Johannesburg, Galia worked as a lingerie designer in South Africa and London before realising, in 2004, that her true passion lay in art.

The artist has a unique way of viewing art and pattern. “Pattern, whether in nature or in art, relies upon three characteristics: unit, repetition and a system of organisation,” she says. “I question how these regular patterns develop and what rules shape the patterns in the world around us. It seems as if order often arises spontaneously from disorder.”

Since her return to South Africa in January, Galia has been working from her home studio in Constantia, Cape Town. She plans to exhibit in both Cape Town and Johannesburg in the near future.

More information: www.galiagluckman.com