Andrew Hamlet
Artist
About Andrew Hamlet
Born in Melbourne in 1971, Andrew spent much of his life living in Australia. In 2012, Andrew and his family moved to Johannesburg. Initially resuming his career in environmental science, it became clear to Andrew that it was a “now-or-never time” to see what could be done if he became a painter. By 2016, Andrew was working full-time - mostly in the medium of oils on canvas - from his home studio in Parkview.
Andrew has exhibited his work at the Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg (2017, 2018 and 2019) and held his first solo exhibition at White River Gallery in 2018 (selling 24 paintings). Andrew has also exhibited paintings with various gallery owners/curators in Johannesburg - most notably Dawid Ras (Dawid’s Choice Art Exhibitions) and Julia Meintjies (Julia Meintjies Fine Art). Earlier this year, Andrew held a successful one-day exhibition at the recently rejuvenated Wilds Nature Reserve in Houghton, in association with the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation. A quarter of the sales from this exhibition assisted with the funding of rehabilitation projects at the Wilds. In early 2018, Andrew was included as a feature artist in the South African Artist Magazine.
With the latest series of work (late 2019), Andrew has attempted to capture some of the beauty of his local neighbourhood with his impressionistic strokes of paint and adventurous blends of colour. The street scenes highlight the somewhat overlooked wintery beauty of the jacaranda-lined roads in Parkview, as the tree leaves begin to change from their uniform green to splashes of yellow and orange.
In the opening speech for Andrew’s solo exhibition last year, art writer Johan Myburg stated the following:
"Hamlet demonstrates that quivering moment, fraught with contradictions and caught up in polarities, highlighting the precarious “in between” position; the position of instability, impermanence and liminality.
This light, this mesmerising light that Hamlet employs, is at the same time so tangible and recognisable, and yet so enigmatic and unfathomable. It changes the mood of the scene, it hints at manifestations of change, it heralds instability and impermanence.
What struck me … was the presence of the artist, the clear vision, the decisive marks in paint, the arresting handling and application of paint on canvas".