Three Dogs 2002

I was born in Alexandra, Johannesburg. I am an artist, writer, art critic and curator. I studied at the Bill Ainslie Art Studios under Bill Ainslie from 1974-1977. I also trained in Museum Studies at the University of London. I was co-founder of the Thupelo Art Workshop project. I am also a founder member and director of the Fordsburg Artists Studios, which is in its tenth year of existence. I established a reputation both locally and internationally and feature in most major collections, museums and galleries in South Africa and internationally. (Smithsonian Institute - USA, Daimler Chrysler - Germany, Victoria and Albert Museum - UK) I have exhibited in Johannesburg, Holland, Mozambique, Italy, England, USA and Finland and am often invited to lecture abroad and at local universities. In 1996 I was invited to a give a paper at the University of London, London UK on ‘Post-apartheid Expression in the Visual Arts’.

I am regularly invited to lecture to students and to act as external examiner at various universities in South Africa. My work has also been widely written about in many leading South African and international catalogues, journals and magazines. My concern in socio-political matters and contributions to the furtherance of disadvantaged black South African artists during and after the apartheid era is evident. My work can be said to reflect the socio-political landscape of South Africa both past and present. The socio political conditions created by the apartheid system of government have to a large extent transfixed the human condition as the axis around which my work evolves. The human figure has become the icon of creative expression.

In 1982 I co-ordinated Art Towards Social Development which was part of the first international conference involving artists living in South Africa and those who were in exile. The conference Culture and Resistance was held in Botswana.

I co-curated Art from South Africa at the Ocford Museum of Modern Art and I co-curated Seven Stories about Art in Africa in the White Chapel Gallery in London.