Some musings about my career thus far

Since discovering the medium during my third year of study at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2015, I have primarily been working in life-size figurative sculptural installations constructed out of recycled rubber tyre tubing. I investigate the origins of civilization and society, as well as the ever-changing politics of national identity, collective memory and cultural belonging in the postcolonial world. I achieved 95% for my final-year sculptural installation (2016) and have since been working full-time from my studio in Durbanville, Cape Town. I was the recipient of the annually awarded Michaelis Prize, as well as a co-recipient of the university's Simon Gerson Prize, for this body of work, called Dis(re)memberings. While I was still a student, I started part-time job at a nearby art gallery in order to help pay off my student loans and cover some materials cost for my projects. This gallery took a keen interest in the projects I was working on during my third and fourth years at Michaelis and started to include some of my pieces in exhibitions, the first of which was a inter-disciplinary group show called Form and Substance in the second half of 2015. This opportunity allowed me to be introduced to the first collector who supported my practice: Grizelda Hall, a prominent name in the local art scene.

The gallery went on to exhibit some of my pieces to the Cape Town Art Fair in 2016, where I made my first sales to international collectors. One of my sculptures from the No Man's Land series that was exhibited there, was purchased by Arnold Lehman, the former curator of the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York, USA. The unexpected popularity of my sculptures at the Fair prompted the gallery to return the following year, where three pieces from the Dis(re)memberings series were acquired by South African-based corporate and academic collections.

When this gallery closed its doors in 2018, I was contacted by another institution that saw my work on social media and was interested in including some of my life-size figurative sculptures in an exhibition in Stellenbosch, called Black and White. This opened the door to a more longstanding collaboration between myself and Absolut Art (later rebranded as Dyman Gallery). A US-based collector's group came across my work that was featured in this gallery and went above and beyond purchasing some of the exhibited pieces by also suggesting a long-term project where I would deliver a minimum of 20 sculptures from the No Man's Land series to them over the course of the next 3-odd years.

This project allowed me to truly hone my craft through much trial and error - an opportunity that I would never have been afforded so easily had I not been offered this sense of "job security" that would keep the studio doors open through this process of continuous experimentation and production. In order to make the deadlines set for this project, I had to find a studio assistant to alleviate the workload and streamline my time management. This led me to a wonderful lady from the local community who was a part of my journey for the duration of this project, teaching me important leadership skills and encouraging me to learn how to delegate tasks and compartmentalise aspects of my production process more efficiently. Through the connections I made during this project, I was able to participate in various contemporary African art group exhibitions in North America in 2018 and 2018 and was even approached by EverGold Projects in San Fransisco in early 2020 to host my first solo exhibition, Kurobozu/Dark Stranger, centred around select works from my No Man's Land series that had formed part of private collections in the States.

This project came to an end in the first half of 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lock down restrictions were enforced across the globe. Even though we had delivered over 20 works to these collectors, the pandemic threw a spanner in the works for many other plans that were still in the pipeline with regards to this project, and I suddenly found myself in the unexpected position where I had been absent from the local exhibition scene and the art market for quite a number of years while exclusively dedicating myself to this project which had now run its course. I was without connections and without prospects - a scary place to be for an artist who had already been practicing for a number of years.

The sudden security of income had vanished and I needed to start the long journey of re-introducing myself to local galleries, art consulting agencies and collectors. The pandemic had completely changed the way in which the art world functioned - suddenly, the focus had shifted away from the importance of the "white cube" tradition. Social media platforms and virtual exhibitions became a marketing and showcasing tool with far more gravitas than ever before and I started dedicating serious time and effort to building my audience online. This has led me to cross paths with the most incredible individuals from various different industries - fellow artists in the national and international scene, art freight companies, businesses promoting sustainable living, film-makers and corporations alike.

It feels cliche to say that if one door closes, another will open in its place, but this truly has been the case for me. I'd been perpetually turning to face nothing but walls for most of 2022, but as the art market started to bounce back and COVID restrictions began to lift, I was offered the long-awaited opportunity for a solo exhibition - A Taste of Salt - at the US-based Simchowitz Gallery. This event spurred a string of media releases and radio interviews in its wake, both locally and abroad, and the month-long display of 7 unique pieces from 2016-2019 was well received by the Los Angeles art scene.

In essence, the last seven years have has taught me much about re-defining and re-branding myself as an artist, presenting my practice online and pitching my work to various different outlets in order to keep growing and showcasing my art, and the narratives that inform and inspire it, to the world. The art market is continually evolving and I am excited for the challenges and opportunities this will continue to bring my way.