At first glance, Werner Bronkhorst’s work seems paradoxical: tiny, hyper-realistic figures drifting across vast, abstract terrains. Step closer – into the textured, clay-like expanse of his canvases, or into conversation with him – and that tension dissolves into a remarkably humane worldview. “At the end of the day, we’re all just people moving through this big, beautiful world,” he tells MOJEH MEN. “My paintings don’t try to explain it – they’re just part of it, a reflection of the extraordinary place we’re lucky to exist in.”
The South African-born, Sydney-based artist is 24, yet his practice crosses continents, collaborations, and a remarkable social media following. Over 1.7 million followers now watch his process evolve online, while collectors and collaborators from London to New York – including F1 World Champion Lando Norris and the cult golf brand Malbon – have gravitated towards his authentic vision. Yet despite such success, when speaking with him, one encounters someone whose primary impulse is to create art that conveys the power and beauty of being alive on this planet. His curiosity, attentiveness, and warmth are evident in both his work and the way he engages with the world.
Bronkhorst’s upcoming exhibition, CRACK, opens at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue in Dubai from 16–18 January 2026. Across four immersive rooms, the collection traces landscapes shaped by tension and motion – salt lakes, deserts, clay courts – populated by his diminutive figures caught between playfulness, contemplation, and the small dramas of everyday life. “I wanted to create something that really captures the moments when the world is breaking, holding, stretching… and how those moments can be full of life,” he says.
The trajectory that led him here began in Pretoria, South Africa, where Bronkhorst’s parents instilled a sense of curiosity and exploration. “I grew up in South Africa, but I didn’t just see South Africa. My parents travelled throughout the country with us, trying to show us every little town and location. But we also explored Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique. And especially Mozambique, I travelled a lot with my dad on outreach programs. And we would go to these rural communities, and play football with the kids,” he recalls. His parents also encouraged him to try every sport possible, cultivating an adventurous spirit that would later allow him to imagine skiing, snowboarding, and other landscapes he hadn’t grown up with. These journeys left an indelible mark on his imagination, and in many ways, CRACK revisits these memories – translating them into texture, motion, and miniature worlds suspended in ephemeral, human moments.
Art has been a constant for Bronkhorst. “My mum says that I was born with a brush in my hand. From a young age I just loved painting, and I never stopped,” he says. His earliest pieces were minuscule – no larger than coins – exercises in skill and discipline. Yet his ambition always exceeded the scale. “I wanted to go big. I wanted to go abstract and have a lot more colour involved in my work. I never really mixed the miniature and the abstract until I came to Australia, where I started making furniture. With all the leftover materials, I made these abstract artworks. And then I realised that perhaps, because the artworks were white, I could paint tiny skiers and snowboarders moving their way down these abstract artworks, and that really just spurred the moment that made me realise exactly what I wanted to do.”
Dubai was a natural choice for CRACK. “When I first conceived the idea to make a collection that is all about the desert and warm landscapes, I knew immediately that I wanted to exhibit it in Dubai. It was the perfect fit, especially given the scale of how tall, big and extreme everything here is and how tiny we are as a result of this extravagant scale,” he says.
Just hours before this conversation, Bronkhorst had been dune bashing in the desert, and the experience sparked even more ideas for future works. “Even though I’ve painted so many desert artworks in this collection, I’ve found so many other ideas I want to explore – the colours, the way the blue and orange interact, and even seeing paragliders over Palm Jumeirah. There’s so much still to discover, and it’s exciting to think about translating that into future paintings.”
Bronkhorst’s process is both disciplined and deeply exploratory. CRACK took eleven months to complete. “In anyone’s eleven-month period, you can have a lot of doubt, excitement, and failure. And that’s exactly what I experienced with many of my artworks. There’s one that really pushed my boundaries. When you’re moving litres and litres of paint across seven canvases, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that you actually suck at what you think you are good at. But then I realised, failure is what it’s all about, because that’s where you learn the most. When you’re pushing your boundaries, that’s when you’re also at your most creative.”
The balance of delicacy, experimentation, and human warmth is evident in how Bronkhorst tells stories through his work. “These tiny figures are floating on these artworks. It’s almost as if they’re suspended midair, captured in a passing moment of action. You can interpret it as how we are these minute beings in a vast world – literally drifting through the universe on this planet, yet at the same time, intimately familiar. These landscapes are not meant to represent anything concretely; they are abstract. But by placing the tiny figures atop them, the abstract becomes tangible, and the tangible transforms back into abstraction.”
His attachment to individual pieces is deeply personal. “The Alchemist is perhaps that painting. It’s inspired by a book by Paulo Coelho. A boy is seen with his camel moving through the desert, on his own quest to find his personal legend and treasure. And metaphorically, it represents so much. Now that I’ve translated that narrative into paint, it reminds me daily that we’re all navigating our own paths.” Many of Bronkhorst’s works remain with him, never for sale, because they carry fragments of memory, emotion, and lived experience. For him, creating is inseparable from observing and reflecting on the world – a practice he intends to continue for years to come.
Bronkhorst’s engagement with social media mirrors this ethos. “I’ve been posting for 11 years, and only in the last three years have things really taken off. When Florence was born, I had 4,000 followers, and that’s when things started gaining traction,” he recalls. A single artwork, a skiing piece from one of his early collections, proved transformative: “I posted this artwork, went to bed, and the next day 19 million people had seen it. That was the moment everything started flipping.” Yet he stresses that social media need not compromise creativity. “Many artists are afraid of trying to water down their work by oversharing. Some artists don’t even share what they do; they just share who they are as a person, and people build trust with you and then realise, ‘Oh, she’s an artist’ – and they can love your work as well.” Social media, he explains, works best when it feels natural, a way to share rather than perform.
For emerging artists, his advice is straightforward and generous: “Just create. The only way to be known as an artist is to be known as someone who paints for a living. I am at my 1,700th artwork, and that means I had to paint 1,700 artworks before reaching this step now. If you keep going and keep working, everything else will fall into place.”
Bronkhorst draws inspiration from a wide range of artists, athletes, and thinkers. He cites CJ Hendry for her disciplined approach to both craft and business, Daniel Arsham for his inventive use of sculpture and painting, and the masters Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Picasso, and Mark Rothko for the audacity and scope of their work. Yet despite such towering influences, he remains grounded and self-effacing, always attentive to the human experience.
Balancing life, fatherhood, and art shapes both Bronkhorst’s practice and outlook. “Many people might think it’s overwhelming, trying to be an artist and a father at the same time, but really, it’s just part of life – many people do it, and women have been balancing it for much longer,” he says. “It forces you to slow down and appreciate every facet of your life. If I want to be a really good dad, I have to spend time with my kids, to be present with family and friends, and I love that, I’m just trying to be the best dad I can.” His children, Florence and Loki, are central muses, providing a lens of immediacy and wonder that infuses his miniature worlds with intimacy and human connection.
Every work in CRACK emerges through charged surfaces and evaporates scale into human stories. Hero pieces like Let’s Clay, inspired by the rusty ochre of Roland Garros clay courts, establish the warm, sculptural palette; Caravan Life immerses the viewer in an intense orange desert, where miniature figures traverse mesmerising dunes; and The Pilgrimage – his most ambitious work to date – weaves seven connected panels into a vast expanse, following a family across deep red and burgundy sands. Other notable works in the series include Ballin’, a reimagining of a wooden court alive with motion, as well as Hot Spot and Yeehaw, each testament to Bronkhorst’s fascination with movement, texture and human experience.
For Bronkhorst, CRACK is a celebration of human curiosity and connection. In Dubai, these miniature worlds will unfold across galleries and desert landscapes alike, inviting viewers to step into Bronkhorst’s universe – a place suspended between abstraction, memory, and a true human perspective. “I want people to feel that, at our core, we are all connected. The world is astonishing and full of wonder, and my paintings are simply an invitation to experience that. We should embrace the chance to explore everything the world has to offer,” he reflects.
CRACK opens at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue, Dubai, for three days only, from 16–18 January 2026. More information
