Vas Putter

Vas Putter is a Durban-based artist working at the intersection of printmaking and assemblage. Drawing from a displaced childhood, her practice investigates themes of diaspora, loss, and recovery. Through discarded objects and print media, she explores humanitarian and environmental concerns while examining the historical and contemporary forces that shape identity.
Recent commissions include the cover design for “In the Storms of History – South Africa’s Journey from Slavery to Democracy” (Grobbelaar 2023), artworks for the National Museum of Bloemfontein through Art Bank SA (2024), and waste-to-art installations for the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies conference (2024).
In 2025, she presented her solo exhibition ‘What Remains – Displacement, Recovery and Rebirth’ at the Alliance Française de Pretoria.
She has participated in group exhibitions across galleries and art fairs, including The Inaugural Global Artivism Conference (Tshwane 2024).
In 2024, The National Arts Council selected her project Averting the Gaze, which examines the connections between global supply chains and contemporary forms of slavery.
She served as opening speaker on behalf of The Printing Girls at the Association of the Arts Pretoria’s World Art Day exhibition.
She presented her research ‘Slavery is Not Dead - Globalisation as the New Colonisation. Women and Children as Commodities’, at the ‘Practices of Entanglement’ South African Visual Arts Historians (SAVAH) Conference, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Pietermaritzburg)
In 2025, she participated in the Inaugural Print Exchange between The Arts Company Soweto and The Printing Girls.