Annari van der Merwe is an artist who lives in Cape Town. Her early paintings are figurative with a narrative undertone, her later work more representational. Oil is her favourite medium and she usually works on canvas. To achieve certain effects, she will, however, use mixed media, including charcoal or pencil for drawing and acrylics for underpainting.
Her style is realistic, but her work cannot be described as realism, as she has a penchant for composite images using diverse visual elements, sometimes giving her work an ironic or humorous, even surreal, twist. She tends to explore a particular theme in each series of paintings. Her work, characterised by fine detail, speaks of rigorous craftsmanship and close observation.
Annari grew up on a sheep farm in the Karoo, and after matriculating in Cape Town, she spent a year in the USA as an exchange student. Subsequently, she studied languages and literature at the universities of Port Elizabeth (now NMMU), Rhodes and the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht in the Netherlands.
Her professional career in general publishing started as children’s book editor at Tafelberg. She is, however, perhaps better known as founding publisher of Kwela, an imprint of NB Publishers, and, later still, of Umuzi, now an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa.
She started painting in 2014, under the tutelage of Greg Kerr. Her first solo exhibition, My Grand Tour, was presented by The Cape Gallery in 2018, her second, Elegy for the Karoo, by Die Breyten-
bach-Galery in Wellington in the Western Cape in 2021, and her third, Klipwerk, at Welgemeend in Cape Town in September 2026.
Annari van der Merwe is ’n Kaapse kunstenaar. Haar werk is hoofsaaklik figuratief, soms met ’n narratiewe ondertoon. Olie is haar gunsteling-medium en sy werk gewoonlik op doek. Om sekere effekte te verkry, maak sy egter gebruik van gemengde media, onder meer houtskool of potlood om mee te skets, en akriel vir onderlae.
Haar styl is realisties maar haar werk kan nie as realisme beskryf word nie, aangesien sy ’n voorliefde het vir komposisies wat uit diverse visuele elemente opgebou word – iets wat haar vroeë werk soms ’n ironiese of humoristiese, selfs surrealistiese, inslag gee. Sy is geneig om ’n spesifieke tema in ’n reeks skilderye te verken. Al haar werk word gekenmerk deur skerp waarneming, nougesette vakmanskap en fyn detail.
Annari het op ’n skaapplaas in die Karoo grootgeword. Ná sy in Kaapstad gematrikuleer het, het sy ’n jaar as uitruilstudent in die VSA deurgebring. Daarna het sy tale en literatuur aan die universiteite van Port Elizabeth (nou NMMU) en Rhodes en die Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht in Nederland
bestudeer.
Haar professionele loopbaan in die algemene uitgewery het as kinderboekredakteur by Tafelberg begin. Sy is egter waarskynlik meer bekend as stigter-uitgewer van Kwela, ’n druknaam van NB-Uitgewers, en nog later van Umuzi, nou ’n druknaam van Penguin Random House Suid-Afrika.
Sy het in 2014 onder leiding van Greg Kerr begin skilder. Haar eerste solo-uitstalling, My Grand Tour, was in 2018 by The Cape Gallery te sien; haar tweede, Elegie vir die Karoo, by Die Breytenbach-Galery in Wellington in 2021. Klipwerk, haar derde solo-uitstalling word in September 2026 by Welgemeend in Kaapstad aangebied.