Adopting the urban art language allows her to update, renew, and challenge the conventions of painting, though her rendering of female subjects is inspired by Renaissance-era portraiture. Her latest solo exhibition, Prekaria, is on at Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein until 23 November. 

She joins Yolanda Maartens in the OFM Art Beat to talk about the meaning of this exhibition and the use of colour in her works.

Meet Liversage (born in 1973), the Cape Town-based artist whose work is shaking up the portrait world. Her distinctive style is a vivid mash-up of urban energy and high art history, resulting in large-scale paintings that are anything but passive.

Confronting the ‘gaze’

At the core of Liversage’s practice is a powerful confrontation of “the male gaze”. For centuries, feminist art theory argues, women in art were simply objects to be viewed and consumed by male eyes, establishing a profound power imbalance.

Liversage flips this script. Her massive portrait faces don’t just sit there – they stare back. This unflinching, direct engagement reverses the traditional roles, forcing the viewer to actively participate and creating a dialogue with a strong feminist undercurrent. She has maintained this powerful thread for two decades.

Street art meets fine art

Liversage has developed a unique visual language by blending the intimacy of portraiture with the raw power of urban mark-making.

• She borrows directly from street art practices like tagging and aerosol spraying.

• These gestures are translated onto canvas, transforming them into symbols that speak to digitised mass production and a futuristic post-human world.

Even her still life paintings are subversive. As she puts it: “I paint flowers as a reference to objectification... I have created an urban take on the classical still-life painting.” She incorporates hints of female anatomy and subversive organic shapes using the spray can, making these traditional subjects deeply contemporary.

Liversage has built an impressive international career since earning her BTech Fine Arts degree in 2000 and holding her first solo exhibition, Orda, in 2006.

Her compelling work has since been shown in numerous exhibitions across the globe, including the USA, Belgium, and Singapore. She is also a recognised muralist, having painted walls worldwide, notably a large-scale installation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. 

Today, Liversage’s highly sought-after pieces are housed in various esteemed institutions, including the Nando’s Collection, the Spier Arts Trust, and the Rand Merchant Bank Corporate Art Collection, cementing her status as a major contemporary voice.

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