Page 6 - Andrew
P. 6

ANDREW NTSHABELE


                                             understand the root causes of the   using is contemporary newspapers
                                             current inner-city decay. “My work   linked with articles about Covid-19
                                             is a social commentary on the    and also vintage newspapers with
                                             socio-economic challenges that the   great head lines. Besides this I have
                                             majority of Black South Africans   been working with and on old letters
                                             face in a post-colonial South Africa.   and postcards which gave me a lot
                                                                              of joy. My aim in my current work
                                             My paintings incorporate more than   is to highlight the past as well as
                                             one medium, they are a fusion of   the present. I believe and know that
                                             collage and acrylic paint, and are   the old world as we know it , is the
                                             produced from photographs I take   thing of the past...we are entering a
                                             on my daily travels around the inner   digital age..now more than ever , is
                                             city and its outskirts” Andrew says.   important to preserve history and
            Andrew Ntshabele, born 1986,     Andrew has experienced a lot of   document it. I am fascinated and
            lives and works in the inner city of   challenges which COVID-19 brought  excited as I do this through and with
            Johannesburg. His art is informed by   and lockdowns as well as restrictions   my art.”
            his environment as he observes the   didn’t make life easy.
            world around him with critical eyes.
            His mixed-media paintings – a fusion  “After the Covid-19 pandemic hit the
            of collage and acrylic – depict what   entire world, I felt that people need
            he sees and lives in every day.  some art and some sort of joy in this
            Andrew was born in the small rural   challenging time.My new and current
            town of Moruleng in the North    artworks depict a more joyful feel, I
            West Province of South Africa and   have been exploring working in large
            moved with his family to the city at   and medium scale works primarily,
            a young age. He studied Art at the   the material I have been
            University of Johannesburg and was
            awarded his BTech degree, majoring
            in painting, in 2013.

                                                                                The image shows Andre Ntshabele’s
            “I have lived in Johannesburg since                                       solo-exhibition in Berlin 2020
            the age of four and have witnessed
            its physical, socio-economic and
            political changes post-Apartheid,” he
            explains. “I still live in the inner city
            where I’m confronted by poverty,
            pollution and urban decay every day.
            I’m interested in the people who live
            in this environment, in the negative
            effects of rapid urbanisation and
            how they put a strain on the people I
            encounter and interact with daily.”
            Andrew’s works investigate the
            social predicament of the city to













             hello@thetravellingartgallery.com                                                              4
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