Je Suis
100 x 90 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
The Melrose Gallery is a leading Pan African Contemporary space located in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The gallery represents established and emerging artists whose voices speak to issues of significance to the Continent of Africa on a global basis.
Artists presented at AKAA 2022:
Pascal Konan, Papytsho Mafolo, Esther Mahlangu, Hussein Salim
Pascal Konan was born in 1979 in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. He graduated from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts of Abidjan. Pascal Konan now teaches painting alongside his personal artistic practice. He represents the daily life of Abidjan. The artist interprets a particular emotion, the one produced by African cities through their affluence and the exuberant profusion of sounds and smells, which characterizes them. Pascal Konan whole approach resides thus at the same time in exaltation of a happy childhood spent in one of the suburbs of Abidjan, but also in the testimony of precariousness of a continent struggling with urbanity.
100 x 90 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
120 x 120 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
100 x 100 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
150 x 150 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
90 x 100 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
120 x 120 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
Born in the Démocratique République of Congo in 1977, Pitsho Mafolo's work depicts questions about the relativity between cultural identity and human behaviour. He questions cultural identity crises and the historical heritage of human societies, with a particular emphasis on African culture. Fragments of bodies half man and half animal often appear in his painting, which tell the realities of an African culture fragmented by foreign hegemony. Open-minded, Mafolo does not hesitate to experiment with new styles and techniques after research or during new artistic encounters which results are reflected, moreover, by the energy that emerges in his works.
200 x 250 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
200 x 200 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
200 x 200 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
200 x 200 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
200 x 200 cm
Mixed media on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
Esther Mahlangu is a multi-award winning visual artist, and much loved South African cultural ambassador. She was born in 1935 and has been painting since she was 10 years old. The bold Ndebele inspired artworks for which she is globally acclaimed grace many of the world’s most respected museums, private, public and corporate collections. Many experts believe that any important Pan African Contemporary collection cannot be considered complete without including one of her works. Whilst firmly anchored in her traditional Ndebele culture, and choosing to live in rural Mpumalanga, Dr Mahlangu continues to spend considerable time in many of the world’s largest and most modern cities collaborating with museums, art fairs, curators, celebrities and respected global brands.
70 x 100 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
75 x 100 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
120 x 180 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
120 x 180 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
90 x 120 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
180 cm in diameter
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
Hussein Salim’s paintings are a dialogue between different cultures, and represent his strong feelings that art must be used as a tool to initiate dialogue. Hussein left his home country of Sudan as a refugee, and his works awaken in us an appreciation of our differences and diverse reactions, but bring us back to the shared foundation of mankind. A sense of displacement and a longing to return to his country has influenced the nostalgia in his art. His richly textured canvases employ an extravagant layering technique to create a dense impasto feel, using personal symbolism that is both ancient and contemporary.
120 x 150 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
120 x 150 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
240 x 200 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
150 x 300 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
150 x 300 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
150 x 150 cm
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy The Melrose Gallery
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