Margaret Nel (b. 1945) is a South African painter best known for her stark, conceptually challenging figurative and still life work, striking use of colour and candid commentary on the human condition. Her work, produced over the course of nearly five decades, is represented in numerous corporate, cultural and private collections. Learn more.

The Outsider –

Completed between 1970 and 1976, these works are characterised by the use of abstracted figuration as a means to suggest the effects of societal isolation, emotional withdrawal and mental debilitation.
 

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Exposed –

Returning to figurative subject matter in the mid-2000s, Nel specifically focused on skin, when laid bare to the elements, as a metaphor for psycho-emotional or physical vulnerability.
 

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