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For a decade and a half Gert Swart has lived and worked in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. His most important exhibition of this period was staged at the Tatham Art Gallery in 1997, titled "Contemplation: a body of work by Gert Swart". It expressed the redemption of an individual as a metamorphosis from the curse of death to the hope of resurrection, and how this transition affects the individual's relationship to society, nature and God.

One of Gert's most significant commissions of the past decade was a monument erected on the battlefield at Isandlwana in 1999. In the past, only monuments to fallen British soldiers were erected there, although the army of the Zulu won the victory, with spears against guns . It was a privilege to be involved in redressing this injustice, and a challenge to design a monument that honours the fallen Zulu warriors but does not glorify war.

Gert's monument commemorating Nobel Prize winner Albert Luthuli was unveiled in 2004. Click on thumbnails to enlarge.