Tracey Thoolen’s projects bring together selected works that explore natural forms, layered surfaces and the quiet transitions found between structure and movement.
Each collection reflects a particular visual enquiry — from organic patterns and shifting textures to the relationship between place, memory and material process. Through drawing and mixed media, her work develops slowly and intuitively, allowing each piece to reveal its own rhythm, tension and sense of becoming.
This body of work formed part of Dialogue of Senses, an exhibition celebrating Women’s Month at the Viewing Room in Brooklyn, Pretoria. Centred on the concept that rocks and fossils act as natural archives, the works explore how the Earth preserves traces of time, transformation, and life. Through studies of rock, fossil, and mineral formations, together with weathered surfaces, the artworks reflect on preservation, change, memory, and discovery.
Developed as part of Tracey Thoolen’s BA in Visual Arts at UNISA, this body of work explores the relationship between form, memory, and transformation.
The series moves through a progression of materials and techniques – from steel dog sculptures to black and white imagery, and into experimental chemigram works. These pieces investigate the idea of identity in motion, where materials shift, evolve, and carry traces of process.
Created during her studies at the CAP Institute for Contemporary Art under Elfriede Dreyer, this body of work explores themes of regeneration, resilience, and quiet transformation. Through imagery of mushrooms emerging from decaying wood and organic matter, the series reflects on life forming from what appears to be lifeless.
The works consider cycles of decay and renewal, revealing beauty in overlooked processes and subtle change. Through layered surfaces and natural forms, the project becomes a meditation on growth, persistence, and the unseen energy within nature.
This collection forms part of Tracey Thoolen’s engagement with digital processes during her time at the CAP Institute for Contemporary Art.
The works explore how traditional mark-making can translate into a digital space – retaining texture, depth, and organic flow while embracing new mediums.
Currently exhibited at the Jan Smuts House, Irene, Pretoria, the series reflects a balance between analogue sensitivity and digital precision, expanding the boundaries of how her work can be experienced.
The Journey is an evolving body of work centred on process, transformation, and the unfolding of form.
Through studies, chemigrams, drawings, and sculptural explorations, the series follows how ideas shift, fragment, and re-emerge over time.
Wild dogs appear as recurring symbols of instinct, resilience, movement, and survival. Across the collection, making, material response, and discovery become as important as the final image.
