David Koloane Anatomy, 2019 Mixed media on canvas Work: 76 x 168 cm
Throughout his life, David Koloane (b. 1938, Johannesburg, South African - d. 2019, Johannesburg, South Africa) worked as an artist, writer, curator, educator and mentor to fellow artists, creating art and encouraging art-making without the usual avenues of approach. From the late 70s onwards, Koloane co-founded and helped run several major arts spaces in Johannesburg, which were committed to ensuring safe spaces for Black artists to work and share ideas.
In 2019, the lziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town held a major survey of his work, titled A Resilient Visionary: Poetic Expressions of David Koloane. The exhibition later travelled to the Standard Bank Gallery and Wits Art Museum in Johannesburg where it was re-titled Chronicles of a Resilient Visionary.
In Koloane’s work we see an idiosyncratic take on African expressionism take centre stage with political content and everyday urban existence coming to life in paintbrush strokes, charcoal swirls and animated video work, with Johannesburg as his primary subject matter.
