Jo Roets

Capetonian Jo Roets is a passionate sculptor, painter and mould maker.

Art has always been a central theme in Jo’s life and art practices are interwoven in her education and professional careers. She had a fulltime lecturing career, lecturing in painting, prosthetics, special effects, props fabrication, sculpting, mould-making and casting at a multimedia film school spanning 14 years. In 2017 she exchanged her lecturing apron for one of a full time artist.

She calls her clay artworks ‘light relief sculptures’. The way Jo uses the medium is unique. The artworks are created from an air-drying clay medium, which is rolled out to a paper-thin thickness to create delicate bass relief sculptures. Using unusual sculpting tools such as toothpicks and needles, she scores the damp surface with indents, holes and incisions. Part
of her creative challenge is to push the medium to its breaking point, encouraging it to warp in the process. This warping quality is unique to the each artwork and unplanned.

Jo has won numerous awards since she switched to art full-time and her work has been exhibited extensively galleries in South Africa and abroad. She is currently exhibiting in SA, Spain and UK.