Tag: illustrator

Converse One Star // For those who live by their own rules

Converse fans are well aware that the Chuck Taylor All Star is the brand’s iconic silhouette. However, for those who appreciate the anti-hero, the Converse One Star encapsulates the spirit of those who operate against the rhythm, living fearlessly on the edge. Launched in 1974, and built for the basketball court, the sneakers were pulled from the market a year later. When brought back to the shelves in the 90s, the sneakers were associated with grunge and skater sentiments – becoming a statement for those communicating anti-fashion. The One Star has had waves of appearances and has evolved since its inception, with subculture quickly latching onto its ability to capture their aura of defiance. Those who wear the One Star embrace its history and understand that it speaks to their own journey – never asking for approval, and acting in their own way.

In celebration of the One Star resurgence this and its latest look as part of Converse’s Spring 2018 collection, Converse shines the light on four South African creatives who choose to live by their own rules.

Moonchild Sanelly – Musician

What does Converse mean to you?

Street culture.

How did you have to fight for your place in the SA music industry?

By not listening to anyone who had an opinion about what I believe in and staying true to myself. By not being pressured by material things and never-ending bills. Fear is not in my vocabulary. I am a fighter!

How important is it to find an individual, authentic voice as a musician?

Image is everything. Taking it seriously is a part of your brand responsibility.

How do you continue to push boundaries as an artist?

By being unapologetically myself because I am me! And there’s nothing like me.

Seth Pimentel – illustrator

How do you construct your illustrative practice to operate outside of the box?

I wish I honestly knew. I guess things just happen. I’d go on the rant about being overwhelmed by the creative process and feeling what I create, to the point where I embody it. But that’s just a mundane answer. I don’t think I can do this question justice.

What drives your unapologetic approach to image creation?

I guess my own desire to remain myself in the chaos of everything. The older I’m getting the less ashamed I’m starting to feel about my proclivities.

What are the ways that you have built a creative signature as an artist?

I really don’t know. I guess this weird sense of consistency. It’s easy to get devoured by the relentless waves of other styles and approaches. But I guess sticking to yourself, finding inspiration from other artists, learning from them, and then creating from what you’ve learnt helps you find yourself. Damn, that was a cliche´ answer.

Do you see yourself as an anti-hero?

Yeah, well I never really belonged anywhere. Felt like this my whole life. Still do. I guess I kinda like to think that I epitomize the idea of a Pariah. One of my favourite musicians Aesop Rock has a line that goes “Stepped inside a club like a statue crying blood. Dance floor scattered, staff asked me why I’d come.” A good summary of what it was like as a teenager. Weird how things go now.

Lorenzo Plaatjies – illustrator

How do you defy the norm?

I think I defy the norm through my work – I’m an artist. But I don’t own an isle or a studio. I don’t use paper, unless I’m printing. Neither do I touch a pencil, to be honest. I work with what’s in my pocket on the go. I work on my phone. Creating paintings wherever I am: on a bus, on the sidewalk, with the homies, wherever. I don’t let norms and stereotypes define how I execute or create.

How do you translate this attitude into you work?

I translate it more into the way I work than my work itself. My work is about wonder and beauty, but I don’t let traditional methods or how the status quo do things limit me. I’m not afraid to do things differently.

How do you feel Converse resonates with you and your practice?

I think Converse and I resonate well. Converse is a brand I always felt pioneered new waves in creativity, and I’m here to do the same. A Converse One Star sneaker almost suits any fit – it’s adaptable, and I feel the same about myself.

How do you push yourself to take your practice further?

I always push myself because I feel nothing I create is ever enough and I hope it stays that way. I’m constantly chasing new goals and an almost frightening vision.

Siya Ngena – Rapper and one half of Champagne69

What drove you to step into the SA music scene?

It really happened by chance. William and I were working on a mockumentary of Braamfontein culture and we started to work on the score and we later put that out and it garnered a lot more attention than we expected, and we took it seriously from then on.

How does Converse fit into your personal style?

The designs and colour vary from one to the other so it adds a distinct but simple flavour to every fit, even if it’s the same fit with a different shoe.

How important is it for you that what you wear represents your attitude towards life and your music?

To me it’s a necessity. I always try to find a balance between style and comfort. Music and fashion are parallels and I treat them as such. Right now though, I must add, I’m not even in my final form.

What are the ways in which you are fearlessly constructing your own voice?

I’m a big fan of anime and gaming culture, and that inspires my lyrics, aesthetics and overall energy. Some people even say I look like an anime character and I’ll carry that energy with me forever.

22 May 2018
Kamila Bassioni – The Illustrator and collage artist conveying feelings of suffering with her cardboard characters

Earthy colours. Muted tones. Abstract, stylistic characters cut, collaged and pasted together to form a whole. All to deliver emotion and critical thought.

Cairo-based visual artist, Kamila Bassioni completed her B.A. in scenography at the Fine Arts College in Egypt. Her work’s focus for the last few years has been freelance illustration, such as the design of book covers and illustrating children’s picture books. Outside of her commissioned work Kamila works on personal projects and has taken part in multiple group shows.

Kamila’s inspiration for personal work is often found in her commissioned projects, as well as from human emotion, thoughts and actions of suffering. With her art, she attempts to convey and share different ways of thinking, particularly with regards to concept. Her aim is to open up the eyes of her spectators and to facilitate a more critical view within her audience.

Working predominantly in paper and cardboard, Kamila merges cut-out and collaging techniques to create her characters that vary in size from minute to enormous. Each character evokes its own feeling and mood.

An example of this can be found in the project, Rags to Riches, an installation of large-scale standing dolls representing the hopelessness and pain of the 1930’s Great Depression and simultaneously paints the current state that Egyptian citizens find themselves in.

Kamila’s work has a tendency to convey feelings of anguish and pain. Her work ranging on melancholy attempts to instil a critical stance from her viewer and touches on politically loaded subjects, reflecting on out past and present world.

23 April 2018
Faggotry (Embodied) // activating queer spaces with multidisciplinary artist Elijah Ndoumbé

Summing up everything that Elijah Ndoumbé encompasses is no easy task. The magnitude of their brilliance is enthralling and their approach is delicately interrogatory and essentially decolonial. Calling Elijah an artist is a fitting label but really Elijah is gifted & accountable to the need of expressing themselves and members of their community through various channels.

Born to a French father with Cameroonian roots, Elijah’s father was considered métis in the country where Elijah was born and initially racialised, Paris, France. The term métis suggests “racial impurity” due to being part European and part African, Africa being considered inferior. There was no conversation about Elijah’s father’s Blackness. The only time Elijah would indulge in their ancestry would be through the traditional meals their Cameroonian grandmother prepared. Elijah later moved to the West coast of America, where Elijah’s white mother is from.

PXSSY PALACE ST. GEORG [Munroe and Nadine] (Point n Shoot | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé
Elijah’s ballet classes in suburban America subtly posed questions about their race and gender. Ballet class was filled with slender, white girls with perfectly arched feet and Elijah had a more prominent ass, darker skin and flat feet.

“The thing about ballet is that it is a form of dance that relies on a particular and biased body type…this experience of art was very fucking gendered and very racialised and I didn’t realise it at the time because of the context of the space that I was raised in…I don’t want to be the only weirdo in the room, I want to feel seen. When you feel desperately isolated and alone because you know something is different about you and there is shame attached to that, like throughout my childhood, there was shame attached to the desire I have and the ways in which it would show up in my life or the ways I would respond.”

U DON’T EVEN KNOW ME, captures of @zengaking & @ma_tayo (1) from larger series (120mm | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Elijah’s becoming was profoundly jolted during their time at Stanford University where they were “severely politicised.” Studying “Power” and “History” within the context of their bachelors in African & African American Studies and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies intensely informed Elijah about the dynamics of the violent histories that riddle their body, their family’s bodies, and the bodies of members of their community. Subsequently, this questioning of embodiment has nuanced Elijah’s work. “It’s actually quite a decolonial way of thinking – to burst out of the frameworks and to imagine what it looks like for us to build our own while simultaneously infiltrating the ones that exist…I’m a non-binary trans person, who has body dysphoria, also regardless of my complexion, I’m also Black, I’m a person of colour, I’m of African decent; I carry these things in the end. I carry a multitude of things and those things are going to show up in all spaces.”

Untitled [A Kween, Ascends] (120mm | Cape Town, South Africa | 2017) | Credits: Shot by Thandie Gula-Ndebele and Nazlee Arbee
Creative Direction and Styling by Elijah Ndoumbé, Nazlee Arbee, and Thandie Gula-Ndebele
Makeup by Thandie Gula-Ndebele
Assist by Tandee Mkize
Initially through the pen, Elijah struggled with this questioning in the form of written pieces that require prolonged simmering in love and care. Elijah was then captivated by expressing themselves through a camera lens and with inspiration and guidance from BBZ London based cultural consultant and video artist, Nadine Davis, Elijah began poetically capturing themselves and members of their community through photography and videography in various personal and global contexts.

Now based in Cape Town, South Africa, Elijah has captured the emotionally intense experiences of Trans womxn who experience a lot of casual violence, through their work with the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce (SWEAT) in a video called SISTAAZHOOD: Conversations on Violence. There are also a couple of photoseries’ accessible on Elijah’s website. The prominence of visual work attributes to the attention paid to this creative outlet but there are infinite ways for Elijah to exist.

Danyele, a muse (120mm | Palo Alto, California, USA | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

More recently, Elijah has had the privilege of “doing the work of making space to think”, this time has been an incubation period, in which Elijah has played with other mediums. For example humbly picking up a pen to doodle with some Miles Davis in the background and a “fuck it” mentality. Elijah’s exploration of themselves as an illustrator stems from their desire to be free from operating in fear, especially through a medium that will potentially fuel their other creative expressions. Furthermore, Elijah wishes to deconstruct the notion that only formal training like “art school” certifies one as an “artist” and the labelling of their creation’s as “art”.

Elijah has also been gravitating to the creative medium they first formally explored, dance. Complimentary to these embodied movements that resemble freedom and release are Elijah’s well versed music mixes, which could blare through the speakers of events like the Queer Salon. Created by Elijah and facilitated with a Black & Brown Queer DJ duo, Nodiggity, the Queer Salon makes space for Queer, Trans and non-binary Black, Brown and indigenous people of colour to be prioritised through art. While lamenting with me over experiences on dancefloors in Berlin and public restroom lines in Johannesburg, Elijah accentuated their urgency to continue building and facilitating safe and sustainable community spaces.

Elijah’s current phase of rest has revealed a beauty of the unknown to them and reinforced that despite daily negotiation of their textured identity, their artistry will always be an unyielding, irrefutable and indispensable embodiment of them and theirs.

Catherine, portrait of (120mm | Palo Alto, California, USA | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Express. (Point n Shoot | Cape Town, South Africa | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Habibiatch (Point n Shoot | Berlin, Germany | 2017) by Elijah Ndoumbé

Portrait of the Artist in Their Home Studio (120mm b&w | Cape Town, South Africa | 2018) by Thandie Gula-Ndebele

Eli Ndoumbé live at Yours Truly (Digital | Cape Town, South Africa | 2018) by Thandie Gula-Ndebele

19 February 2018
Nonku Phiri Doesn’t Have To Try Be Anything

I assume everyone reading this website knows who Nonku Phiri is. Well, you know her work, at least. The multi-talented creative has featured on a handful of hits, both as rapper Jung Freud and as ‘herself’, has collabed with some of the most respected names in the game, and put out two vastly different singles, in the few years she’s been putting out music. She’s also an illustrator who has done work for other local musicians. Oh, and she has her own record label, Albino Black. It’s all been so multifaceted that while she’s shown her range of skills it’s hard to say that any of us really know who Nonku Phiri is from her work so far. This year though, we’ll all be getting to know Nonku a lot better.

I had the pleasure of getting to know the songbird a little bit better and get a feel for what she’s got going on this year via a short Skype call a few days after her New Year’s weekend Afropunk and Smoking Dragon sets. She was a bit tired but still lively, “It’s just been a long year so I’m feeling a bit in need of a break. Nothing too hectic”.

Since it’s the new year, I opened by asking her if she was the resolution type, “Nope. I do think one does need to have a plan for each year but I like to leave room to expand. I have plans for what I want and plans to achieve through the year and then everything else that falls in between is like leaving room for surprise and seeing what the world has to offer.”

Her plans for this year include kicking off the year by putting out a fresh single and finishing off the EP she’s planning to release around June. “There’s a new single coming out soon,” she tells me and wryly follows up with, “I’m not gonna give you dates but it’s coming out soon.” Nonku plays her cards close to her chest, she wouldn’t even tell me who she was working with on the project. “You’ll find out when it comes out. I’m just working with someone I’ve been working with for a while.”

“I plan on putting out a lot of music this year. I’ve been producing as well so…” I interrupt her by asking her what it’s like moving from just being a vocalist to producing as well. She corrects me by saying “I’ve never just been a vocalist,” and goes on to answer the question,“I’ve been solo for the last 3 years, been travelling and kind of have a different approach in terms of the live set. A lot has been learnt in terms of, as you said, being more of a vocalist and using the voice as an instrument, versus standing there and having backing tracks. It’s been fun to explore that side of being more hands-on with how the music gets done versus stepping into a booth and just writing.”

Because of how much she’s collaborated, I ask if she’s looking forward to having more control over the music. “I’ve had control over my music the whole time, I just think the collaborative part of, I guess, the formative years was just based on kind of challenging myself and getting out of my comfort zone.”

Nonku then gets into what about collaboration she thinks is so dope. “It’s being able to create something that can’t ever be duplicated with any other individual. Being a musician or being a creative will always have a collaborative element to it. I think for me it was being young and, you know, not necessarily having one thing that you’re solely focusing on genre-wise. Going from boom-bap, experimental hip-hop beats, to then doing house music, then having a stint, like, rapping, and then getting back to just making music.”

Circling back to the question of control, the musician continues, “I think the only thing that I would say is that it’s not about having control, it’s about finally being able to have people understand me outside of the collaborative part. Featuring on a track doesn’t necessarily mean that one’s just a featuring artist. I just feel like there’s a contribution, or a story, that can only be told by specific people or when you work with specific people.”

“Everything I’ve worked on has always had a touch of me. Nothing else I’ve created through collaborations has been the same.” If you’ve heard her music, you know this is true. We get into the growth that comes with working with talented people across so many different genres. “The sonic side is something I’ve always been exploring and I guess you always learn or get influenced by the different genres or whatever. I’m using my voice and being able to come in and not just have to sing words, you know? Vocalists are kinda underrated in that sense. They are producers in their own way,” she says in reference to the earlier vocalist versus producer comments.

Nonku sees the last three years since she’s moved back to Joburg as an incubation period. “I think it’s been a stage of incubation, a stage of exploring myself. I mean, before this I wasn’t really travelling overseas or playing to different audiences so I think It’s been a very beautiful growth period and, I don’t know… I just think Joburg always has all these negative connotations attached to it, but it’s home for me. This is where I was born.” Although she grew up in Cape Town, she was born in Jozi and moving back gave her “time to just figure out who I was at this particular phase as an adult.”

“It’s just been a really great mirror in terms of what you surround yourself with. I don’t think the influences have necessarily come from the city, but I think it’s been a space that’s allowed me to just be… “ she briefly pauses and then lets out, “without having to try be anything.”

And I guess that’s the thing with Nonku, why it’s so hard to pin her down – it doesn’t feel like Nonku is really trying to be anything, she just is. She’s a creative spirit expressing herself, and she plans to do so in a myriad of ways this year. She’s keeping things hush for now, but she’s clearly excited about putting everything she’s learned up to this point into a definitive release that encompasses all her talents. Look out for Nonku’s name, voice and visuals in 2018. You’ll be glad you did.

10 January 2018
Illustrator Panteha Abareshi // visually representing the realities of anxiety and depression

17-year-old Tuscan (Arizona) illustrator Panteha Abareshi is making work that attempts to capture the realities of living with a mental illness. Through her images she represents the struggles that come with anxiety and depression. More than that, she portrays women of colour with strength that shines beyond how they may feel at times. This strength comes from acknowledging vulnerability and confusion. Taking inspiration from the likes of Erykah Badu, films by David Lynch as well as her Iranian/Jamaican upbringing, the main driver for her journey into the art world was the time she spent in the hospital due to her being born with Sickle Cell Beta Thalassemia. She turned her frequent visits to hospital beds into metaphorical studio visits.

The knives, snakes and roses that appear to be inflicting pain on the women she draws are physical manifestations of the pain that these women are feeling.

It’s All Excruciating, 2017. From the series ‘Girls//People’.

A second foundation on which her work is built relates to her rejection of unrealistic understandings of love. “My artwork is a direct expression of my beliefs that the way young people, especially girls, are taught to value, prioritize and derive happiness from ‘love’ is damaging and wrong. I struggle with the societal standards for romance, love and sex constantly, and express that in my work because I want to normalize the notion of women/people not craving intimacy,” Abareshi explains in her artist bio.

Abareshi hosted her first solo show in New York City in April at Chinatown’s Larrie Gallery where she exhibited a series of works titled “Blessed Is The Pain”. With these works she unpacks what it was like to grow up with divorced parents who have polar opposite attitudes towards religion. “My father, who immigrated from Iran, is a steadfast atheist, and never spoke to me about religion. My mother, who immigrated from Jamaica, is a fiercely devout Christian,” she explains in her artist statement. Being forced to go to church and learn bible verses, while discovering her identity as a woman and holding reservations about Christianity, resulted in damaging interpretations of her personality. These and other experiences while she was growing up contributed towards her anxiety and depression. The works that she put together for her solo show visually represent this tumultuous time.

To check out more of Abareshi’s work visit her website.

Flesh, 2017. From the series ‘Blessed is the Pain’

12 October 2017
Seth Pimentel: exploring dark fantasies through experimental illustrations

22-year-old illustrator Seth Pimentel, aka CAT FAP, sat casually in the winter morning sunlight resting his arms on his legs in the courtyard of One Eloff. His black Thrasher cap with its yellow logo greeted me before his eyes did. I sat down next to him and we discussed his art and vision for exhibition Future 76.

Marcia Elizabeth (ME): Could you tell me more about your background?

Seth Pimentel (SP): I was born and raised in Johannesburg. I started drawing when I was 6 and in school we had to draw 9/11. I drew the shittiest piece of art, the worst 6-year-old drawing you can imagine and my teacher actually liked it. She put it up amongst some of the best drawings in the class. From that day it all just made sense. I went to the National School of the Arts (NSA) when I was 14 and after that I went to Open Window Institute [a private higher education institution focusing on visual arts and digital sciences].

ME: How would you describe your art?

SP: I’m an illustrator and a visual artist. My art is weird. It’s a lot of dark stuff that comes from me. I’m not a dark person or anything. Sometimes it’s just great to tap into some kind of energy and create something from that. It’s just me being me. Expressing what I can, how I can.

ME: In thinking about Future 76, do you feel like it fits into the scheme of what the other artists are doing? How are you thinking about creating a visually appealing flow for the exhibition?

SP: I definitely think I could fit in with everyone that is exhibiting. We all kind of know each other. When you are friends with people it’s easy to pick up on their energies and adapt to their style, and they adapt to yours. I never usually plan when I work, so whatever happens, happens. It’s youth month, so I think I’m going to work keeping youth culture in mind.

ME: You were saying that you don’t really plan your work. Does your work fall under the idea of automatic drawing?

SP: It is automatic drawing. It’s like sitting down and saying to myself, ‘ok cool I’m going to doodle something starting with one side of a face’ and 5 or 6 hours later I’ve got a full illustration. Then I look at it and think, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’. I’m never aware of what’s happening. It always just ends up becoming something.

ME: Do you feel as though the art world is competitive?

SP: I was oblivious to the creative industry when I started illustrating. It is a dog eat dog industry. If you don’t meet the deadline someone else will, so you have to do your best. Everyone, no matter who you are, compares themselves to everybody else. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing because if you engage with yourself that’s great. You push yourself to do better. Making sure that you as an individual transcend the level that you are at now. I look at other people’s work and for me that’s inspirational.

ME: Tracking back to the National School of the Arts, do you think it shaped the direction you chose for your art practice?

SP: I did industrial design at NSA. I went in thinking I was going to draw my whole life. And in a way I did. I made a lot of linocuts and prints, but I made more furniture and design aesthetic stuff. At Open Window I did Game Design and in my first year I picked up a subject called illustration. From there I was hooked. NSA did help me a lot, even in the way that I communicate with people. We didn’t have cliques or gangs. Everyone was friends with everyone. Racism wasn’t really a thing at my school and everyone was free flowing. I started stretching my ears when I was 16. It was great and different.

ME: Do you have a specific colour scheme that you go back to?

SP: I kind of stuck with colour for a long time. Colour schemes become their own motif and their own style and identity. I’ve been using the same colour schemes now for the past month, these weird gradients of greens, reds and blues. I stick to a routine and try use the colour I find on Kuler. If I don’t like it I’ll change up the hue and saturation, and tweak it until I’m happy.

ME: Do you work with titles?

SP: Sometimes the titles just come to me, but sometimes I have to force a title out because it’s something that someone wants to buy or it’s for an exhibition. 90% of my works are untitled.

ME: Do you try and create meaning in your work?

SP: I stray completely away from meaning. Sometimes it’s great for me because people make their own meaning. I had an illustration that someone else titled “Submerge, Emerge”. It’s a face that’s drowning in water.

ME: Are there any specific artists who influence your work?

SP: There are hundreds of artists I look up to. A lot of digital artists, and a lot of traditional artists. Sachin Theng, an illustrator, Natalie Foss, John-Michel Basquiat. A lot of local people as well like my friend Dylan Hartland and Elio the Illustrator. It’s a broad spectrum of people that I know and people that I don’t know.

ME: Has social media provided a platform for you to be recognized?

SP: It has, for a while I didn’t like it and then I realized that it helps. If you freelance it creates a space where you can be commissioned from. You kill two birds with one stone and you can survive in this really tough city doing what you love. I’m low key on social media but I love what it’s doing and where it’s taking a lot of people.

ME: Have you been involved with an exhibition before?

SP: Yeah I have. I had an exhibition with Imile Wepener and a bunch of other great illustrators like Shaun Hill. I’ve had two live paintings, one at the Johannesburg Hive and one at Joziburg Lane.

ME: Do you feel like you are a good representative of Johannesburg youth?

SP: Everyone in Johannesburg is so vastly different. I’d like to think that I am a fair representative of the skater, punk, hip hop and street culture scenes. I am a catalyst of all of these smaller subcultures in Johannesburg, so am I a fair representative to a certain extent.

12 June 2017
“Hipnotic” Art – An Interview with illustrator Lungile Mbokane

I interviewed illustrator Lungile Mbokane about where his artistic journey began and his experiences at the Design Indaba this year.

Tell our readers a bit about you and your journey as an illustrator?

My journey as an illustrator began in 2011 when I signed up for graphic design as a career that I wanted to pursue. It has been a journey filled with challenges, good and bad, but worth going through because they have resulted in who I have become as an illustrator. My first entrance to the field was in 2013 when I was designing a poster for a movie titled “Hear Me Move”. I made it all the way to the top 4 of the competition.

How do you like to describe your work?

My work is a series of thoughts, events and activities that I happen to experience in my daily life. I try to capture everything around me to feed my source of inspiration. I have always pursued abstract forms of illustrations. I try to translate the world from my point of view. Abstract concepts and forms tend to be best describe my work because when something is abstract it holds more than a single meaning.

Do you have particular themes that you enjoy working through?

Yes I do. Authentic art is the theme I enjoy working with. This means I can explore various concepts but with intentions of producing proudly African inspired art that has the ability to create and blend work that can be internationally recognized. My themes can range from music, culture, and many ideas that I collect daily that I can explore as an artist.

Tell our readers about “Hipnotic” / “Hipnotic Art Movement”.

Hipnotic Art Movement came about when I had a feeling about using my art as a tool that heals me. The name comes from Hypnosis which is similar to how I perceive my art. It is a drug (medicine) that is prescribed by the doctor (artist). I added a hip feel to the name by spelling it out “Hipnotic” rather than “Hypnotic”. The first three letters ‘H-i-p’ define my work as relevant and current.

Tell our readers about your experience at the Design Indaba this year.

My experience at the Design Indaba Festival was something that helped me to grow as an artist. Being part of something that surrounds you with other types of artists had an impact on how I now view myself and my work. The platform helps you reach and meet a lot of young, inspiring creatives who have the ability to influence and change the world through their work. I was able to see the results of simple ideas made into something effective and the power of creativity on one stage. The series of events that took place during the festival became something that I can treasure for a lifetime. I’d say it’s something that can help you move to the next level in your career.

Tell our readers about some of the awards you have received and projects you have been involved in.

Last year I was part of the Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Awards and received an award for being identified as one of the top 100 exhibiting artists. I have been part of Conte Magazine, an amazing magazine that puts creatives together. I was featured in their second issue, Africa, and their third issue, Revolution. I will feature in their up coming issues titled The Raw and 20 Something, which are going to be released in April and May respectively. I was also part of the annually held SA Taxi Foundation Art Awards and was a top 30 finalist. I am currently part of Design Indaba’s emerging creatives class of 2017. I am also currently part of Fiercepop which is an online exhibition that has amazing artists and exhibits their work in places such as Amsterdam, New York, London, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

What are you working on at the moment? What can we expect from you this year?

At the moment I am working on expanding myself as an independent artist as well as the distribution and availability of my work to the public. What people can expect this year from Hipnotic as an artist is more work to being dished out. I have been compiling my work for years and I am slowly getting it out for people to receive. People are looking at a recent Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design graduate who is ready to put his qualification to good use.

Anything else you would like to mention about you and your work?

My work is forever evolving and changes just as much as the world turns. I aim to explore as much as I can with various concepts and ideas because I feel that all artists need to keep up with the times. Texture, loose ink brushstrokes and collage play a huge role into how I fuse digital art and traditional art.

To check out more of Lungile’s work follow him on Facebook and Instagram or check out his Behance.

24 March 2017