state
of the art

Ukhethiwe, 2023

By Pamela "Sana King" Mavuso

Mixed media and acrylic on canvas

Sana King, real name Thobile Pamela Mavuso, is a Johannesburg-based poet, healer, and self-taught multi-disciplinary artist. She is an award-winning author of a Songs Broken Women Sing, a poetry anthology that was published in 2019.

Sana is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is experimenting with painting, photography, text, sonic, and printmaking as mediums.

Her poetry journey began at the age of eleven as a response to challenges she was facing at home and as a way of processing emotions and a pathway to healing. Her painting practice began as a confrontation towards her fear of painting and as a search for her creative self. Sana tells stories in the form of a limitless brown figure/being existing within colourful patterns inspired by her Ndebele cultural identity and explores mapping, healing, self-preservation, and spirituality, which are themes found in her poetry.

Sana King had her first solo exhibition at Wits Art House windows in 2022 titled The Brown Figure: Abstract Expressionism, which was about the search for meaning as a journey to finding self and to realizing our power and internal resources.

I can breathe under water, 2022

By Kristen McClarty

11 layer reduction woodcut on Fabriano Tiepolo

Kristen is a specialist printmaker based in Kommetjie, South Africa, using relief and monotype techniques. Since 2002, she has experimented with woodblocks, capturing the natural surface onto paper and other materials.

Kristen’s deep connection to her materials inspires her storytelling through the use of natural wood grain, handmade paper, and printing tools. The subtle colours and tones also contribute to the final artwork.

Her recent woodblocks explore the concept of residual energy left behind in a place. She believes this energy builds up over time, creating a layered history on the environment.

This theme is carried over into Kristen’s current work. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is held in public and private collections around the world.

Kristen’s stitched textiles are a personal record of her thoughts and feelings. The fabric is often botanically dyed using locally-sourced plants. 

She slowly layers and stitches these pieces together, allowing the artwork to evolve organically. These textiles serve as a way for Kristen to express unspoken thoughts and emotions.

Unfamiliar Frequency, 2024

By Zolile Petshane

Mixed paint on canvas

Zolile Phetshane (1973) obtained an Advanced Diploma in fine arts at the University of Witwatersrand (2006) and later joined the Artist Proof Studios in Johannesburg. Throughout his career, Phetshane has explored contemporary topics, such as religion, politics, consumerism, and capitalism. He explores the intricates of these themes through a combination of abstract colour fields and figurative elements and symbols. He works in a variety of mediums ranging from printmaking, works on paper in pastel and acrylic and oil on canvas.

Lizamore & Associates has been working with the artist since 2008 and has developed a close partnership with the artist over the past decade. Phetshane has participated in many fairs with the gallery, including the FNB Joburg Art Fair, the Investec Cape Town Art Fair and the RMB Turbine Art Fair. Lizamore & Associates has also hosted numerous group and two-person exhibitions that includes Phetshane’s work. Phetshane’s work has also been shown at the North West University Gallery (2014) and with Clifton Boulder in Europe.

The artist has also shown many successful solo exhibitions with the gallery, including 1 is the magic number (2016), Simplified Complexity (2018) and his most recent body of work Neon Paradise (2020), which saw Phetshane collaborating with artist Anton Burger. His work is sought after by many collectors and is represented in prominent private and public collections.

Thirst, 2023

By Maja Maljević

Acrylic paint on canvas

Maja Maljević completed her studies at the School for Design in Belgrade in 1992. In 2000, she moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where she now lives and works.

Maljević has been exhibited widely in Southern Africa and Europe, featuring in many of the most important private and corporate art collections in South Africa. While Maljević works intuitively, her concerns are predominantly formal. Her interest, for instance, in the relationship between two shapes within a composition is informed primarily by an interest in the shapes themselves rather than symbolic or an emotional state.

Maljević’s particular style begins with “dirtying” the canvas with a layer of bright paint that breaks the baldness of the white surface and opens up the space for Maljević’s intuitive ‘jigsaw’.

Onto this ground, Maljević builds up surfaces with drips, blocks, bands and waves of colour, searching for harmony between colour and form, line and shape, expansive surface and small detail. For Maljević, physical movement is an important part of the process. You’ll never find her seated at an easel.

JOZICITY MASK, 2020

By Khwezi Strydom

Mixed paint on canvas

Born in New Mexico of a South African father and French mother born in Tunis, Khwezi Strydom has always been preoccupied with questions relating to the mix of different cultures and multiple identities.

At a very young age he drew and painted which rather organically led to his interest in graffiti when he reached adolescence. Immersed in the milieu of graffiti, skate and hip hop, he began to work on large surfaces, concentrating on defining the meaning of letters, and linking improvisation with preparatory work.

At the same time, he began studying astrophysics, before finally deciding to become a craftsman glass blower at the Cristallerie Saint Louis for a period of 5 years. It was also during this period that he began once more to paint on a daily basis.

In 2012, he made the decision to devote his time entirely to the art of painting. He lives and works today in Drôme, France.

Smile like you mean it, 2023

By Chelsea Young

Oil paint and oil pastel on canvas

Chelsea's artistic practice has transitioned from large-scale oil paintings created during her urban life in Cape Town, South Africa, to a more intuitive combination of textiles and oil paintings, now based in her studio in Botswana.

Situated in Southern Africa, Botswana is renowned for its natural beauty, notably the Kalahari Desert and the Okavango Delta, which is celebrated as one of the world's seven natural wonders. Having earned her Fine Art Degree at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, Chelsea gained a distinction for her exploration of "art as experience," focussing on the impact of specific elements such as colour and scent on the human body.

In 2022, Chelsea participated in two international artist residencies, one in Kenya's Rift Valley and another in the village of Andore, India. These experiences were pivotal, inspiring a shift in her creative practice towards intuitive and experiential artworks, akin to internal landscapes.  Her travels have, naturally, informed her artistic expression, merging her life experiences with her creative practice and have become a catalyst to explore the depth of the African continent.

As she delves further into her practice, Chelsea draws inspiration from the simplicity of existence, reflecting on the importance of a connection with life's essence. Through her art, she seeks to evoke these universal aspirations, inviting viewers to engage with the beauty and depth of the human experience.