Art Exhibitions

Mirrors and Washboards

16 October 2021

Solo Exhibition and Book Launch of Wayfarers' Hymns

Artist’s Statement

“As a South African and an Appalachian American-African artist my art celebrates the coalescence of the materials and traditions of these diverse regions. My practice is largely intertextual, utilizing mixed media dominated by acrylic or oil on canvas, collaged with fabric and newsprint and an assembly of conceptual three-dimensional found objects. Each painting functions as a narrative of domestic, gender and workplace tensions. Some works pay homage to performance – particularly dance and music – in a manner these art forms function as a healing force in society. I also indulge in conventional modes of expression occasionally, focusing on the media of acrylics and oils on canvas, on pre-Renaissance encaustic wax on canvas, and on black-and-white and color linocuts on paper. The works are a fusion of styles drawing variously from Basotho traditional murals called litema and lipatrone, South African township art and European expressionist modes, particularly Brasque-inspired Cubism. Quite often there is symbiosis between my painting and storytelling as some of my art is influenced by or loosely interprets scenes and characters of my novels."

Participating: Zakes Mda