Best known for his career as a singer-songwriter and front man for the Springbok Nude Girls, multi-award winning artist, Arno Carstens, has in fact been expressing himself across a variety of creative media over the last twenty years. Decades in the making, his love for painting has culminated in an extensive collection, and like his voice, the style is immediately and uniquely, Arno Carstens.
Arno studied graphic art in 1992, following a lifelong passion with the arts. As a child he dreamed that he would embark on a career as an artist, but when he met Theo Crous in 1994, and together with Arno Blumer, Francious Kruger and Adriaan Brand, formed the Springbok Nude Girls, his focus shifted to music, where it stayed for the next 18 years.
In 2010 Arno returned to SA after 3 years of writing, recording and touring his third solo album, ‘Wonderful Wild’ abroad. Back in Cape Town, Arno began working on an idea for this exhibition, a 2 year journey that saw him return to his first love: fine art.
Arno paints in oils on canvas, with themes drawn from his emotions and subconscious. The work is bold and expressive, sometimes playful sometimes sinister, with a hint of the surreal.
Besides an exciting collection of solo works, Arno has, over the years, collaborated with local artists Beezy Bailey, Jack Mantis, Barend de Wet and Marinda Swartz.
