The South African artist Karl Gietl was born in Worcester in the Western Cape, and grew up in the small mining town of Benoni near Johannesburg on the East Rand. He went to school in the vibrant and turbulent city of Johannesburg during the chaos of the mid-eighties, when he started to paint his colourful scenes of city life. He had his first solo exhibition in 1994, and the following year was part of a group exhibition of South African artists, curated by fellow artist Wayne Barker, in the Museum of Modern Art in Santiago, Chile.

In 1998 Gietl won first prize in the national Absa L’Atelier Art Competition, which gave him the opportunity to live and work in the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris for six months during 1999. He remained in Europe for three years, living, travelling and exhibiting in Holland, Germany, Belgium and France. After a short stay in Spain, he returned to South Africa in 2001.

Back home, Karl Gietl embarked on a travel spree through South Africa and neighbouring countries, which gave rise to his large cityscape series of 2004. From portraits of cracked up prostitutes in the brothels of Hillbrow, to the prehistoric forests of Mpumalanga and the beaches of Mozambique, he found inspiration in every aspect of southern African life, and in 2005 he embarked on a series of touring exhibitions which included every major city in southern Africa.

In 2009 Karl Gietl returned to Europe, and now lives and works in Sète in southern France, where he continues to produce art and films.

Karl Gietl’s website is here, and his Facebook page here.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artists, and for supplying many of the images.