Pierre Vermeulen (b. 1992, Stellenbosch, South Africa) lives and works in CapeTown. He holds a Master’s in Visual Arts (2021) from Stellenbosch University.
Vermeulen’s practice centres on the body as both agent and residue. Working with imitation gold leaf on Belgian linen, he uses sweat as an oxidising force, producing corrosive imprints that register physical presence over time. In parallel, he constructs orchid forms from human hair, pressing and transferring them into the gold surface. These processes collapse distinctions between image, object and trace,situating the work between painting, ritual and material transformation. Drawing on symbolic structures associated with votive practices, the works register desire, projection and the body as a site of offering, where the sacred and profane are held in unstable proximity.
Alongside his recent exhibition Deeper Deeper at RESERVOIR, Pierre also appears in Loading Bay’s AW26 campaign, bringing his distinct visual presence to the season’s narrative.
B.M: Thank you for being part of our Autumn/Winter campaign — Loading Bay has been part of the De Waterkant community since 2007, sitting at the intersection of food, clothing and considered living. What role do you think a space like that plays in a city like Cape Town, and where do you see it within the broader cultural conversation?
P.V: I’ve known Loading Bay for a long time and visit often. I remember going there when I was still in school and feeling like I’d stepped into something quite different. What you’ve built is more than a store or a café. It’s an environment. The consistent, considered combination of food, fashion and living creates that experience. It sets a tone in Cape Town and raises the level of attention and care.
B.M: What was the experience of being part of our Autumn Winter Camapaign like for you?
P.V: Working on the campaign felt very aligned. It was easy, direct, and most importantly, it felt sincere.
B.M: Your work draws on ritual, meditation and the body as a material. How do you describe what you do to someone encountering it for the first time? How much of the work happens before you even touch the materials?
P.V: I’m very interested in the unconscious — the part of us that’s already moving before we become aware of it. Desire sits there. It drives things, and we don’t fully see how until later. I look at this through ritual, meditation and embodiment. The materials I mostly use are sweat, hair and metal surfaces. I set up conditions that allow the work to form through reaction rather than control. The oxidised image comes out of the process, not from me placing it there.
My process of making the panels happens in clear stages — like smoothing the linen and gilding. Each stage is quite repetitive, which leaves a lot of room for my mind to zoom in and out. That shifting focus is where most of the work happens.
B.M: Loading Bay has always believed that material honesty matters, whether in clothing or art. You work with materials that carry real traces of the body. What does it mean to you for a material to be honest, and how do you know when a piece is finished?
P.V: I think honesty comes from not forcing a material to do something it doesn’t want to do — letting it behave in a way that’s natural to it.When that happens, it starts to carry meaning without needing to be pushed. It becomes symbolic almost on its own.A work is finished when I feel that any further touch would weaken it. Sometimes that’s immediate; Sometimes I need to leave it alone for a while before I can see that clearly.
Previous solo exhibitions include Bidden or Unbidden, Enter the Hot Dream (Krone x
WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, 2025); Formats for Transition (RESERVOIR, Cape
Town, 2023); Thoughts Think Themselves (Stellenbosch, 2021); Of itself (SMAC,
Johannesburg, 2018); Pierre Vermeulen (SMAC, Cape Town, 2017); and Sweat
Prints (AVA, Cape Town, 2017).
Selected group exhibitions include Chapter One: Vernacular Materiality (PSM, Berlin,
2025); Fallow Ground (Spaced Out, Gut Kerkow, 2024); Of their time (7): A Look at
Private Collections (FRAC Grand Large, Dunkerque, 2023); Oh So
Quiet (WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, 2023); and Matereality (Iziko South
African National Gallery, Cape Town, 2020).
In 2024, RESERVOIR presented a solo booth at SPARK Art Fair, Vienna. In 2018,
Vermeulen presented a solo booth at Artissima, Turin. His work has been shown at
Art Brussels, miart, Art Cologne, Abu Dhabi Art, Contemporary Istanbul, FNB Art
Joburg and Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
His work is held in international collections including the The Eckard Collection
(Netherlands), Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection (Belgium), A4 Art Foundation
Collection (South Africa), Zeitz MOCAA Collection (South Africa), The Spier
Collection (South Africa) and the Kilbourne Collection (South Africa).