shani waldbaum

ShaniWaldbaum

Biography

Shani was born in Harrismith in 1975. 

At the age of four, she moved to Durban where she was exposed to the Zulu nation and its culture. She developed a fondness for this nation and often depicts Zulus or their culture in her realistic works. 

In 1990, she moved back to Johannesburg where she matriculated in 1992. She studied art at school but is mostly self-taught. 

Shani returned to Durban after matric, where she supported herself through her art for a few years before going on to study photography at Natal Technikon. By 1995, the year her daughter was born, Shani was well acquainted with the usual art forms such as painting, printmaking, sculpture, charcoal, pen and ink. 

She became intrigued with living, moving art and decided to explore this further. She apprenticed in the art of tattooing and went on to become an acclaimed tattoo artist. She used this medium to support herself for a number of years. 

In 2001, Shani returned yet again to Johannesburg, where she currently resides. She continues to explore the world of art, expanding her already vast knowledge of mediums and producing awe inspiring works. 

Shani is currently producing two main genres of work - contemporary-realism and abstract. Most of her contemporary-realistic pieces are executed in oils on canvas and centre around the human figure. Her inspiration for these works stem from her fascination on how the West has influenced the traditional African cultures - and vice versa. Her abstract work is mostly sculptural and done in mixed media. It is in this area that she continues to expand her diverse usage of mediums to portray abstract subjects, like emotions, thought and philosophy, to great effect.