About The Artist

Inspiring emerging artist, Ilze Coetzee is a proud South African, born in Gauteng and now living in the Western Cape. This promising young artist has been painting for more than a decade and has chosen to turn her passion into her career. This passion for her creative talent is evident when you engage with her personally and with her paintings. She specializes in Oil and Acrylics on canvas with the main theme of her work being African people, which she has been doing under the pseudonym, Ilaai, since 2005. Ilze focuses on colour and character in the people she immortalizes on canvas. The energy and movement allow the artist to portray these high levels of energy in her paintings. When these works are viewed, it doesn’t merely stand as a colorful and realistic picture, it immediately draws the viewer into the transcending world of the characters portrayed with the rhythm and emotions passionately enthralling you from within the canvas. She has also started working in various abstract fields, landscapes & cityscapes that have been received very well from different groups in South Africa. The artist has always been passionate about the works of Mark Rothko, doing her final year thesis on the psychological implications of his work. The relationship between colour and emotion has been the main guide in her abstract creations, and where her painting tells a story of everyday life, the abstracts portray emotion in its rawest sense. Ilze sold her first piece of work whilst in her final year of school in 2000, went on to study Fine Art at Stellenbosch, took up art full time in 2005 and had her first solo exhibition in 2009. Her art is popular in local as well as European markets and has obtained International recognition. Her work has been purchased by collectors from Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, USA, Italy, France and New Zealand. She’s also been commissioned to produce works of art for Monty Shadow, Paulo Coelho, Reutech Radar Systems (Pty) Ltd. and Miele SA.