Artists

Arthur Dlamini is a visionary South African artist whose practice centers on the "sacred alchemy of self-discovery" and the exploration of the human spirit. Using his camera as a divine conduit, he captures raw emotional truths and the collective quest for personal sovereignty and liberation. His work is deeply rooted in presence and intuition, drawing inspiration from soulful narratives, ancestral whispers, and the philosophy of Ubuntu to create art that serves as a meditative act of communal healing.

In recent years, Dlamini has expanded his creative boundaries by layering vibrant, expressive painting directly onto his photographs, a process exemplified in his acclaimed Duality series. This mixed-media approach merges monochrome realism with abstract, symbolic motifs like the ankh to explore fundamental dichotomies such as life and death or wisdom and innocence. By fusing African spiritual symbolism with modern expressionism, Dlamini transforms his art into a "potent medicine" intended to mend social fractures and illuminate the interconnectedness of all people.

A Johannesburg based visual artist born in 1998 in Estcourt, KwaZulu-Natal. Mfuphi is a self-taught artist whose practice is shaped by memory, resilience, and the transformative power of lived experience.

His work engages deeply with questions of identity, history, and the human condition, particularly how childhood, displacement, and socioeconomic realities inform who we become. Drawing from personal and collective narratives, Mfuphi uses art as both a form of healing and a vehicle for critical reflection.

Rametse Gilbert Maepa is a South African visual artist working across painting, printmaking, and mixed media. His practice engages migration, memory, and archival politics by re-contextualizing the individuals, ideas, and intellectual currents that have shaped alternative narratives. Grounded in South African intellectual history, his work explores how communities organized themselves to resist cultural and socio-economic marginalization in precarious times.

Drawing from found ledgers, commercial leaflets, coal, and industrial candle wax, Maepa constructs visual archives parallel to the historical narratives and commemorate the embodied knowledge preserved in everyday urban South African life. Working within a social realist tradition, he charges these materials with socio-economic history, treating them as living archives from which he excavates latent intellectual power through metaphor and deliberate re-contextualization. His method operates as an archaeology of the present, engaging surfaces as palimpsests where colonial traces remain visibly layered, inviting viewers to recognize the enduring inscriptions that shape contemporary.

Palesa Mshungu is a Johannesburg based visual artist. Her work navigates the profound complexities of existence, deeply influenced by her journey of motherhood. Her creations are not merely expressions of creativity; they are heartfelt declarations of her presence and purpose in a world that often seeks to overlook the individual. Each piece she crafts is an intimate exploration of identity and a testament to the legacy she aspire to build for her son.

As a mother, her work is a meditation on the delicate balance between the present moment and the unfolding future. Every colour choice and form she creates is a seed planted in the roots of time—an investment in the story of her life and the lives of those who come after her. Through her work, she hopes to inspire others to contemplate their own existence, recognize the power of their presence, and embrace the beauty of being alive in this moment, all while forging a lasting legacy.

Sanele Casper Ntshangase is a self-taught artist from Johannesburg, born 1996. He uses art to convey human psychology and evolution, working in raw textures with layered sand and acrylic to express change, emotions, memories, and personal views.

His practice rejects social expectations and perfectionism. Through abstract layering, he breaks internal barriers to find freedom in the subconscious.

Mdudzi Twala, an artist from Zola North, Soweto, creates with honesty, resilience, and purpose. Inspired by Rembrandt, Gerard Sekoto, and his father, his work is shaped by years of self-taught practice and mentorship.

His latest work, inspired by parenting an autisic child, raises awareness about autism while engaging children through teaching and creation. In 2024 he was also chosen to be part of a programme called the Nando’s creative exchange which is will culminate in two exhibitions at the end of 2025 to 2026,one at Union house and the other at AVA gallery Cape town.

Coming from a background in Multimedia, Slovo's work is experimental, process-led, and deeply influenced by design principles. Through imaginary surrealism, Slovo explores themes such as identity, resilience, memory, and the tension between tradition and modernity.

His approach embraces spontaneity and structured composition, blending intricate details with bold, expressive forms that evoke a sense of movement, transformation, and grounding. By layering textures, patterns, and symbols, he constructs thought-provoking visual stories that invite the viewer into an introspective dialogue. His compositions—spanning drawings, paintings, and digital art—are layered with meaning, often depicting fragmented or reconfig- ured figures that transport us into his world through a meditative state.

Slovo's artistic practice is informed by lived experience, absorbing and reinterpreting the world around him through his unique visual language. His work questions the constructs of power, belonging, and self-definition. Whether through fluid brushstrokes, dynamic line work, or striking color contrasts, he invites audiences on a journey to weave narratives that reflect shifting tides of the world around us.

Levy Pooe (b. 1994, South Africa) is a visual artist whose practice explores the intersections of the personal and the political through painting, drawing, and collage. Born during South Africa’s transition to democracy, Pooe reflects on the textures of daily life and the rhythms of urban existence, capturing figures in moments of reflection, ritual, and repetition. His figurative forms often dissolve into abstraction, using line, gesture, and erasure as a language of memory and social engagement. Through layering and cutting, his work operates as a visual diary, documenting histories while reimagining presence.

In 2020, Pooe received the Cassirer Welz Award in partnership with Strauss & Co Auctioneers, which led to his debut solo exhibition Mphe Mphe ya lapisa, Motho o kgonwa ke sa gagwe at the Bag Factory Artist Studios. His recent solo presentation Se Segolo ke Bophelo featured at FNB Art Joburg 2025, and his work entered the J.P. Morgan Chase Art Collection in 2023. Selected group exhibitions include Fabrics of Freedom (District Six Museum), Bag Factory 30 Years Anniversary Exhibition (UJ FADA), Towards New Frontiers (FNB Joburg Open City), Motions and Motives (Dalro Gallery), Nostalgia and Place (Origin Art gallery) and more.

Beyond the studio, Pooe's public facing projects include murals at Kitcheners (Braamfontein), Blackbrick Sandton, and the Bag Factory Artist Studios. His collaborative and research driven work extends to publications such as Nokuthela Mdima (2021). He has undertaken international residencies at Kafart, Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria (2024), and the Akoje Residency, Dumfries House, Scotland, UK (2025)

Pooe's work traces the tension between erasure and presence, offering renewed ways of seeing the body, the city, and the shared stories that shape contemporary South African life.

Maitemogelo Diphetogo Mphela is a contemporary mixed-media artist. Her work explores vulnerability, emotional resilience, and the quiet complexity of the inner world. Through painting, text, and experimental processes, she creates layered compositions that reflect how emotions are held and transformed. Her practice invites moments of reflection, where feelings are allowed to exist without urgency or resolution.

Naledi Modupi is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary visual artist known for her bold, emotive portraiture that celebrates femininity, identity, and cultural pride. Her work spans painting, illustration, sculpture, ceramics, and photography, each piece telling layered stories of womanhood, memory, and heritage.

Deeply inspired by the South African women who raised her, Naledi uses line, shape, pattern, and vibrant colour to create abstract portraits that honour their strength, spirit, and beauty. Her visual style bridges tradition and modernity, with a creative practice that fluidly moves between traditional mediums like paint and chalk to digital art and sculptural ceramics.

Chambala is a visual artist whose practice explores migration, identity displacement, and the complexities of belonging within the Pan-African diaspora. Born in Matola, Mozambique, during a period of civil unrest, he relocated to Johannesburg at a young age, where he was confronted with the realities of identity struggles, discrimination, and xenophobic violence. These lived experiences form the foundation of his artistic inquiry.

Chambala's work critically addresses issues faced by young Black Africans in South Africa and nationwide, weaving together themes of historical memory, social inequality, and the consequences of migration. His practice challenges the failure to learn from past tragedies while questioning the widening socio-economic divide. Working primarily with acrylics, textiles, and found materials, he has developed a distinctive style that blends elements of expressionism, portraiture, and surrealism.

Bongani Vincent is an Afro-surrealist painter whose work channels ancient symbols through a contemporary lens. Rooted in the visual traditions of African mask-making and the metaphysical language of the tarot, their series the13apostles maps a journey through the inner landscapes of identity, transformation, and divine chaos.

Bongani explores the tension between surrender and control, impulse and connection, direction and destiny. Each painting is a portal, revealing beings that have emerged from the artist's subconscious—a realm inhabited by dream-guides and masked ancestors. Through layered textures, spiritual geometry, and a palette charged with emotion, these archetypes come alive as reflections of the self in flux.

Bongani's practice is shaped by three inner personas—Anaah, Sen, and Ruu—each lending their voice to the creative process. Their art becomes a ritual act of self-integration, where vulnerability, power, and longing are woven together in oil and abstraction. This body of work is not about fixed meaning, but about ongoing becoming.