Johnathan Schultz was born in South Africa. Before dedicating himself fully to art, he worked in both the financial sector and the gold industry, experiences that shaped his sensitivity to how materials embody value, power, and illusion. Schultz draws inspiration from South Africa’s history and resilience, often transforming symbols of struggle into emblems of hope. His early works, such as the Mandela series, reimagined Nelson Mandela’s fingerprint in gold as a universal mark of resilience. In his recent collection, Schultz turns to the poppy, exploring its layered meanings of beauty, fragility, addiction, and remembrance.
Johnathan Schultz is a contemporary South African-born artist known for his powerful transformation of symbols that carry both pain and possibility. His work is characterised by the interplay of fragility and permanence, beauty and brutality, and a profound sensitivity to material. By using precious elements such as 23k gold leaf, resin, and paint, Schultz reclaims and reframes charged motifs, most notably Nelson Mandela’s fingerprint and the poppy, into layered emblems of resilience, contradiction, and renewal.
In his practice, Schultz masterfully captures the tension between struggle and hope through the deliberate use of material and symbolism. Gold becomes both a marker of reverence and a reminder of exploitation; the poppy embodies beauty, remembrance, and fragility while also evoking addiction and destruction. This duality reflects Schultz’s deeper exploration of how symbols can be both oppressive and transcendent, challenging viewers to confront complexity rather than accept simple narratives.
His fascination with transformation stems from a personal and cultural history rooted in South Africa, a country defined by both deep scars and extraordinary resilience. Growing up in this environment taught him to see beauty and brutality side by side, an outlook that has become the foundation of his visual language. In his hands, art becomes a force to expose, reframe, and renew, holding space for dialogue and healing.
Schultz’s creative process is equally experimental and symbolic. His background in finance and the gold industry sharpened his awareness of how materials embody weight, illusion, and value. Metals in his work are never purely decorative but treated as vessels of meaning, sacred yet flawed, permanent yet fragile, mirroring the contradictions at the heart of his practice. By uniting preciousness with ephemerality, Schultz asks viewers to reconsider the relationship between value, power, and truth.
Schultz has exhibited internationally, from his debut at Art Basel Miami to his presentation at Miart Gallery in London, recognised as the Best Gallery in the UK. These opportunities have expanded his dialogue onto a global stage, where the contradictions of his South African heritage resonate across diverse audiences. He continues to pursue new explorations of material, symbolism, and transformation, with upcoming projects that push the boundaries of meaning and perception.
Jonathan Schultz’s art is a testament to the belief that hope is never the absence of struggle, but something forged within it. Through his evocative, thought-provoking works, he aims to ignite dialogue, inspire reflection, and remind viewers of their own power to transform pain into something defiant and beautiful.