Share This Article
Sculpture by Carol Bryant at Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, 3 October 2026 to 31 March 2027
For six months this summer, the walk between a wine tasting and a lagoon-side lunch comes with company. Twenty bronze and resin animals by the British sculptor Carol Bryant have been placed across Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate on Walker Bay, outdoors and in the open, rather than in a gallery room. A king cheetah on the fynbos walk. Two giraffes locked together near the winery. A rhino holding its ground on open lawn. Visitors come across them much as you would come across the animals themselves, without much warning.
Bryant works from the field. She has studied cheetah, leopard, lion and buffalo across Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Namibia, and volunteered with cheetah and wild dogs at the Ann van Dyk Cheetah Centre near Pretoria. She models in clay, then casts in bronze or iron resin in limited editions. South African visitors may already know her work without knowing her name: her portrait bust of Archbishop Desmond Tutu stands beside his grave in St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town. She has won Best Sculpture at the MIWAS International Wildlife Art Exhibition and the Southern Nature Art Exhibition, and shows regularly at Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens and Sculpture at Beaulieu in England.
The estate sits fifteen minutes from Hermanus on the R43 and ninety minutes from Cape Town, which makes the exhibition an easy addition to a day on the Cape Whale Coast.
Entry is free and the sculptures stay in place for the full six months, so there is no need to plan around an opening night. Walk the lagoon path, find the works as you go, then stop for a tasting or lunch at Moody Lagoon Restaurant. A card beside each sculpture gives the title, medium and dimensions, and a QR code opens the digital catalogue. Every piece is for sale, with prices on enquiry, which gives the show the feel of a sculpture park you can take something home from.
“Carol’s sculptures add something that wine alone cannot: the invitation to stop, to look closely, to reach out a hand,” says Penny Streeter OBE, owner of Benguela Cove. “Her African subjects feel entirely at home in this landscape, and that is exactly the point.”
Good for art lovers, garden and design visitors, families walking the estate, and anyone already heading to Hermanus for the day.
Listing details
- What Where the Wild Things Come to Rest: Wildlife in Bronze and Resin, a sculpture exhibition by Carol Bryant
- When 3 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, daily 10:00 to 18:00
- Where Benguela Cove Lagoon Wine Estate, R43, Walker Bay, Hermanus, Western Cape
- Cost Free to all estate visitors
- Good to know Outdoor exhibition across the estate. All works for sale, prices on enquiry. Wine tasting and lunch at Moody Lagoon Restaurant bookable separately.
- Contact info@benguelacove.co.za, (+27) 087 357 0637