Theo Kleynhans

Theo Kleynhans (1965-2026) was an artist, critic and playwright.

Biography

Theo Kleynhans was born on 30 November 1965 in Welkom , where he grew up and went to school at Goudveld High School and Welkom Gymnasium. He studies included art courses at the University of Pretoria, the University of Houston in Texas , the University of South Africa and the Rand Afrikaans University. In addition to his art studies, he is also a trained as a social worker.

He is a sculptor and painter and holds exhibitions of his work in San Francisco, New York and Houston in the United States , Edinburghin Scotland, London in England and Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Grahamstown, Oudtshoorn, Bellville, Bloemfontein and Stellenbosch in South Africa.

Among his other roles were stints as the coordinator/curator the visual arts components at the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival (KKNK), the Woordfees in Stellenbosch, and the Aardklop Arts Festival at Potchefstroom.

He was for a time the Western Cape chairman of the South African National Association for Artists and chairman of the Bellville Art Association.

Other facets of his work include undertaking the art direction for international television commercials and being a freelance art reviewer for Die Burger newspaper.

He is a sculptor and painter and holds exhibitions of his work in San Francisco , New York and Houston in the United States , Edinburghin Scotland, London in England and Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria, Grahamstown, Oudtshoorn , Bellville, Bloemfontein and Stellenbosch in South Africa. His solo exhibition at the KKNK of 2009 is called " Onthou / Vergeet " and in it he reflects on man's inability to recall memories in full. His work has been included in many private and public collections in South Africa and abroad. In 2014, he exhibited ninety different pottery plates at the Cape Town Art Fair. He has won many awards for his art, including the Dreams Award, the Plascon Painting Award and the SA Breweries Sculpture Award. He was also a finalist for the Absa Atelier Awards, the MomentumLife Awards and the APSACeramic Awards. Initially, he preferred to live in industrial areas due to his irregular working hours and his penchant for hard rock music while working. He lives for a time in Bellville South in a massive apartment on top of a building's roof, but then buys a dilapidated house in Boston in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. He is restoring this house and decorating it with his art and numerous other works of art.

He wrote Drie tannies en ‘n tert, Woordfees, 2003;

Seuns (2013).

He passed away in Porterville on 13 November 2026