Inspired by the natural world, ordinary people, emotional states of being and local landscapes, three South African artists featured in our Spring 2020 issue create work that evokes a real sense of connection. Using a combination of colour and texture, each artist transforms their own perspective and emotions into striking pieces that encourage the viewer to slow down and take a moment to reflect.
Balekane Legoabe
Balekane Legoabe lives and works in Pretoria. Qualified with degrees in Visual Communication and Film Arts, she creates digital artwork that seeks to explore the complexities of values and truth and their impact on both personal and social identity. Balekane has exhibited her work around the country, including spaces in Johannesburg and Cape Town. She is the 2019 winner of the StateoftheART Gallery Award, and her solo exhibition What it Feels Like to be in Water was recently exhibited online.
Through her work, Balekane explores the relationships between psychological, emotional and spiritual elements and how they influence each other. Inspired largely by the natural world, Balekane is also driven by the potential for art to evoke real emotion.
Balekane creates digital collages in which animals and human figures are the primary subjects. She also creates unique mixed media artworks using a range of textures and materials, including paint, ink, masking tape and sandpaper — the results are colourful, visceral and expressive.
Balekane’s work can be found at the StateoftheART Gallery in Buitenkant Street, Cape Town.