Born in Evander, 1975. Lives and works in Cape Town.
Andre attended the Pro Arte School of Arts in Pretoria (1989 – 1993) where he studied painting and graphics. He flourished at art from an early age attending regular art classes from age 6. He received various merits and awards for his artistic abilities and continued study in several artistic disciplines including painting, sculpture, printmaking and graphic design.
In 1994 he relocated to Cape Town where he trained in metalworking (forging, welding and metallurgical theory) under the direction of John Allesandri. He worked extensively with wood during the late 1990’s and also worked at the Doyle Art Foundry (1997-1998) to become familiar with the mould making and bronze casting processes. He later started working at the Bronze Age Art Foundry where he became efficient in all the various stages of the lost-wax casting process.
From 2004 to 2007 he was a partner at the Bronze Age Art Foundry learning all the aspects of sculpture production and resource management. André played an integral part in the implementation of various art exhibitions and trade shows and worked with many renowned artists such as Maureen Quin, Dylan Lewis, and William Kentridge. During this time André also developed a foundry sculpture course that taught all the various aspects of bronze reproduction and also built a family home in Scarborough.
In 2010 Stead started working on the “Anamorphic” series, launching it with a solo exhibition “Evolution” in August of 2011 in Franschhoek at IS ART gallery. This is where the figurative studies paid off and for the first time he had a strong grip on the “essential” form. During 2011 he was commissioned by Laurence Graff to create a sculptural installation,
“Flight of the Swallows” for the Indochine restaurant at the Delaire Graff Wine Estate in Stellenbosch.
Over the next two years, André would create a collection of installation artworks using stainless steel and Plexiglas as the art medium as well as develop two new bodies of figurative sculpture employing the new minimalistic approach derived from the anamorphic series. “Illumination”, a solo exhibition, opened in July 2012 at the Christopher Møller Art Gallery in Cape Town and the solo exhibition “Elemental man” at the Knysna Fine art gallery were both directly influenced by the work of the anamorphic series.
“The Emergence of Man” exhibition (2014) brought the stainless steel/Plexiglas and figurative sculpture work together in a colorful look at human nature and its underlining motivations and primal driving forces. The 2016 solo exhibition “Sublimation” explored the social aspect of modern society interconnected in a digital age. Stead continues to ask relevant questions regarding the nature of human perception and the expression of beauty and life. He continues to exhibit at the Christopher Møller Art Gallery in Cape Town, who has represented him at all the Cape Town International Art Fair exhibitions from its inception in 2013.
Stead’s technical skill and first-hand experience in a multitude of materials and numerous sculpture processes have allowed him to produce work of exceptional quality with great expression and elegance. He continues his work studying the “human condition” as he calls it, and supports the idea that people are generally good and a part of nature rather than separate from it.

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