2026
ARTIST STATEMENT
THIS IS NOT A KROKODOKULUS
Marcel Herholdt lives and works in Greyton, a small village in the Overberg region near Cape Town. Self-taught, he has spent much of his adult life working in the art departments of film and television productions — a background that has sharpened his eye for visual storytelling, composition, and the power of iconography. His paintings bring that cinematic sensibility into the gallery, translated into an Afro-pop protest aesthetic that is bold, colourful, and uncompromising.
At the heart of Herholdt’s practice is a deep unease with the quiet erosion of personal freedom. His paintings take aim at the mechanisms of surveillance and control — CCTV cameras, algorithmic tracking, the steady cashless drift of modern commerce, and the soft coercions of government and corporate convenience — and ask, with genuine urgency: can any of it be trusted? His work resists the comfortable lie that safety and convenience are neutral gifts. The message, as he puts it, is simple: revolt, rebel, rethink.
Herholdt’s visual language is rich with recurring motifs, each carrying specific symbolic weight. The skull is his signature — his tag, in the tradition of street and graffiti art. Dead fish suggest a crisis of faith. A rose, often straining towards an outstretched hand, represents freedom. A key refers to the choices we make. Palm trees, appearing in positive and negative pairs, speak to the integration of shadow and self. Together, these symbols populate a world Herholdt calls Club Cocomo: a fictional paradise park of lost dreams, broken promises, and the relentless human desire to belong somewhere good.
This Is Not a Krokodokulus is Marcel Herholdt’s second solo exhibition with WORLDART, following his debut show Welcome to Club Cocomo in August 2022. It will be presented downstairs at WORLDART and introduces new work that continues his exploration of resistance, freedom, and the mythology of Club Cocomo.
2025
ARTIST STATEMENT
Marcel Herholdt (b. 1980) lives and works in Greyton, a small town near Cape Town. He has no formal art education but has spent much of his adult life in the art departments of movie sets and on other creative projects.
His Afro-pop style protest paintings deal with his concern about the subtle intrusion of our personal space that the corporate world and governments pursue under the pretence of convenience and safety. CCTV cameras, algorithms, the war on cash and cell phone technology capture everything we do and is presented as convenience and safety. But can it be trusted?
Can they be trusted?
For Herholdt the irony is that we’ll all end up in Club Cocomo, a fictional world he created that symbolises a paradise park. A place we all want to get into, but the only thing we will find there is broken promises.
Many artists work in this style, but what sets Herholdt apart is the integrity in his work. A clear narrative, good compositions, clever colour combinations, the use of the best materials available and a perfectionist’s attitude to detail and finishing.
