The artist
About Evan
A lifetime of looking at people.
Figures & Faces
Evan Oberholster was born in 1956 in South Africa. He studied Fine Art at the University of Pretoria before relocating to Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he worked as an artist and illustrator.
In 1999, Evan presented his first solo exhibition, Total Exposure, a collection of 69 male nude paintings completed over two years of focused artistic exploration. Following this debut, he held three further solo exhibitions in Cape Town and participated in several group shows.
New Medium, New Direction
Since relocating to Clovelly in 2019, Evan has expanded his practice to include clay sculpture, developing a series of ceramic masks — expressive, mixed-media works exploring the human face.
His current body of work juxtaposes these recent sculptural pieces with his earlier oil paintings, presenting a dialogue between painted bodies and sculpted faces.
Selected exhibitions
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
- December 1999
Total Exposure · Le Bon Ton Gallery, Cape TownSixty-nine oil paintings of male nudes.
- April 2001
Naked at Fiddlewoods · Fiddlewoods, Cape TownMale and female nudes, shown as part of Observatory’s Walking the Street art festival.
- May 2001
Skin · Klarity Fine Art Gallery, Cape TownMale and female nudes.
- December 2002
21st Century Nudes · Obs Café, Cape Town
Group exhibitions
- May 2001
Å 4000 – Å 8000 · Knysna Fine Art Gallery
- December 2001
Corpus · Arts Association of Bellville, Cape Town
- May 2002
The Art of Colour · Knysna Fine Art Gallery
- July 2006
Portrait Exhibition · Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
- October 2025
Open Studios Fish Hoek & Clovelly · Clovelly, Cape Town
- October 2026
Open Studios Fish Hoek & Clovelly · Clovelly, Cape Town
Collaborations
- October 2016
Opening Night · exhibition accompanying the play The Finkelsteins Are Coming to Dinner, Cape Town