The President Hotel Welcomes Zarah Cassim for the Next Chapter of In Residence.
06 September 2026The President Hotel, in collaboration with Art School Africa, welcomes South African artist Zarah Cassim as the latest to be featured in In Residence, an ongoing exhibition series bringing contemporary Cape Town voices into the everyday spaces of the hotel.
Running from 1 September 2026 to 11 January 2027, the exhibition presents a selection of Cassim’s paintings, inviting guests to encounter her approach to landscape, perception and the spaces between reality and imagination.
Working primarily in layers of oil paint, Cassim creates landscapes that hover between the familiar and the surreal. Natural forms blur, dissolve and reappear, while shifts in colour, light and gesture create a sense of movement between what is real and what is imagined. Her painted worlds move from soft blushes to deep, earthy foliage, enveloped in a shifting haze that makes each landscape feel both intimate and elusive.
The works explore the way places remain with us after their details have begun to fade. Memory, perception and illusion become intertwined, creating landscapes experienced as much through feeling as through sight. In Cassim’s words, familiar shapes can lose their clarity, creating a state of transition where uncertainty opens space for new ways of seeing.
Her approach to painting is deeply intuitive, with each work responding to her state of mind and the changing nature of perception.
“My painting and brushwork are instinctive and closely connected to my state of mind. At times it is bold, loose and expansive; at others, more tentative and detailed. Through this intuitive process, I explore my longstanding interest in perception and the idea that reality exists in multiple layers. My paintings inhabit the space between the real and imagined, where landscapes, memories and gestures move between clarity and ambiguity. I am interested in that thin and shifting line between reality and illusion, how what appears dreamlike to one person may, through another perception, be entirely real.”
The works presented in In Residence reflect this tension between recognition and uncertainty. From the expansive The Dance I to smaller works including Sherbet, Berry and Bleed, Cassim moves between landscapes, natural forms and abstracted gestures, creating spaces that feel at once intimate and elusive. The selection spans oil on canvas, board and Fabriano paper, offering a view into her evolving exploration of natural forms and spatial illusion.
A graduate of the University of Cape Town, where she completed an Honours in Fine Art in 2014, Cassim has developed an active practice both locally and internationally. In 2021, she co-founded Hotel Hernandez Art School, a peer-to-peer art programme for emerging and established artists and later curated its graduate exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery. She has exhibited across South Africa as well as internationally, including in Australia, Spain and France.
For The President Hotel, the exhibition continues a commitment to making contemporary art part of the everyday. Through In Residence, works by local artists are brought beyond the traditional gallery environment and into spaces where guests can encounter them as part of their stay. The series, presented with Art School Africa, aims to make art more accessible while creating opportunities for artists to build visibility and reach new audiences.
In Residence is an ongoing exhibition series presented by The President Hotel in collaboration with local non-profit organisation Art School Africa, bringing Cape Town’s contemporary artistic voices into the everyday spaces of the hotel. The series builds on a shared commitment to making art more accessible and connecting artists with new audiences. Through this initiative, The President Hotel brings local creativity into spaces of daily life, while Art School Africa creates platforms for local artists to exhibit their work, build visibility and access new audiences beyond the traditional gallery environment.
In Residence: Zarah Cassim is on view at The President Hotel 1 September 2026 to 11 January 2027.
For more information about the exhibition, please contact info@artschoolafrica.com.