Ronél de Jager’s (b. 1985 - Johannesburg, RSA) practice focuses on oil painting, each artwork taking weeks to complete, as she meticulously builds up the canvas with delicate precision in each brushstroke. Thematically she uses floral arrangements as her point of departure, deconstructing the images digitally and transforming them onto canvas. Her work resonates with the Golden Age both technically and conceptually: the use of chiaroscuro and delicate brushwork used to interrogate notions of vanitas – decay over time, environmental concerns, and personal narratives as microcosms of broader social issues.
In her oeuvre, transience is the constant, change the leitmotif, both conceptually and formally. Her works demonstrate the continuous transformation to which every form is subjected, and reflect on the eternal processes of becoming and of passing away. In this, she resonates with philosopher and sociologist Georg Simmel: “By ‘nature’, we mean the endless connection of things, the uninterrupted production and negation of forms, the flowing unity of occurrence that is expressed in the continuity of temporal and spatial existence. Matter, every kind of material, is constantly in a process of transformation.”