Kali van der Merwe was born in Johannesburg and re-named herself after the fierce Indian Goddess of creation and destruction. Her work merges boundaries between art, science, biology, astronomy and taxidermy. She does so by entering the realms of imagination and magic. She explores trajectories between real and fictional while traversing nuanced interconnections between death and life.
Van der Merwe’s formal education is grounded in a BA Fine Arts majoring in sculpture from Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town. During post formal study, she worked in different mediums such as ceramics, printmaking and sculpture. She exhibited at galleries nationally and internationally.