BIO
Antoine de Villiers
Antoine de Villiers (South African, 1977) is one of life’s travelers and blessed with an artist’s soul. Antoine works in many mediums, yet, there is always something quintessential of her throughout the core of her work, like a wick in a candle drawing her creations out.
During a difficult childhood as a daughter of parents struggling with mental illness, Antoine was in a devastating motorcycle accident that claimed the life of her friend/driver. Days later, the diary she kept meticulously for years was stolen and she lost her medium of expression. It is then that Antoine found her artistic voice and art became a means of survival.
Antoine does not have a conventional education nor a conventional life. She started studying B.A. Graphic Communication but, in frustration, got on a plane to backpack Europe and the UK. She earned her way forward bathing the disabled and doing marketing on the street corners of London. She found the hours in Tate Modern or the Louvre more stimulating than graphic communication. She earned her Web Design Diploma (was awarded ‘Student of the year’) from Boston Business College before expanding her horizons to a new continent. This time, the USA. In the following years, Antoine extensively traveled 46 states as well as Canada and Mexico. She studied Marble Sculpting in Colorado and Yoga in Georgia while exhibiting her work in numerous shows including New York, Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
In 2014 Antoine moved to India, where she lived for 5 years while exploring South Asia and studying what interested her, first Photography and Reiki in Delhi, and then Indian Art, Visual Art, Modern Art and Philosophy through Oxford Continued Education. In India, she taught art to the women and children of India’s underworld –from the brothels of Old Delhi to Maharashtra’s slums.
Today, Antoine lives with her husband and two boys in Savannah, Georgia, USA. She is a veteran of over seventy exhibitions across the globe, including England, India, South Africa and the US. Her work has received numerous awards including best figurative artist by the Richmond Art Museum, Indiana 2007. Best Solo Artist by Eric Smith at the New York Art Expo 2009, first place in Figurative Painting by Pamela Jean Tinnen from Artrepreneur, 2020 and the Excellence award at Art San Diego 2022. Antoine’s originals can be found in various public and private collections around the globe.