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Melissa Barker

Melissa Barker is an established ceramics artist, qualified French chef and archaeologist, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Her archeological studies focus on ancient Babylonian pottery and food recipes written in 1700 BC. Melissa’s extensive knowledge of Mesopotamian material culture, and the experience of working with ancient ceramics, has greatly influenced her vessels and pay homage to the sophistication of this ancient civilization. Her most recent collection, I See You is informed by the prehistoric relationship between humans and bees. The primordial act of gathering honey dates back to 10 000 BC where honey was first offered to the Gods. The metaphorical bee hives are punctured by a hole that represents a sacred umbilical cord and is indicative of female form. The void can also be interpreted as a womb or an empty space before creation can take place. “Like the hives houses the Queen bee, so too does the female body house the creator spirit.”

Tshepiso Seleke

Tshepiso Seleke is South African cinematographer, known as “thedarkroomartist” from Soweto, Orlando – a place of rich history and culture but also of great struggle. He works within an imagined space of a bittersweet reality – of black people having come this far but also not having gone anywhere at all; the collective black experience still tells issues of systematic oppression and political and social injustice. Being careful to set a specific tone of representation, Seleke captures his subject in socially provocative backgrounds with subjects that act suspended from the circumstances; forging the past and the present. He is a voice for those who have been stripped of individual agency and power and those who have their agency but are still working with limited spaces. He hopes to see more black people taking up space and finding their voice.

Douglas Condzo

Douglas Condzo is a photographer and filmmaker based in Maputo, Mozambique Working across fashion, documentary, portraiture, and narrative storytelling, Douglas’s portfolio captures and represents his omnivorous interests and his democratic approach, as well as demonstrating his dedication to finding and illuminating tender moments of realness, complexity, and beauty.

Justin Dingwall

Justin Dingwall is from Johannesburg and achieved a Baccalaureus Technologies in Photography Cum Laude from the Tshwane University of Technology in 2004. Dingwall has exhibited extensively both locally in South Africa and Internationally. He has been selected for various awards including, SA Taxi Foundation Art Award 2015, Sasol New Signatures 2014, and IPA – int’l photography awards 2013. The artists creates images that resonate with emotion and challenges traditional notions of beauty. His works leans towards the unusual, and avenues less travelled with cultural undertones.

Frank Bohm

The Frank Böhm Studio platform is an established furniture and architectural studio that  focuses on the design as much as the making and manufacturing. It represents a clear conceptual and artistic understanding that is then transformed into reality and allows the Studio to showcase itself across multiple industries. Frank Böhm’s mission is to design and manufacture unique objects that are made with scrupulous attention to detail and meticulous precision with defined environmental awareness parameters to each piece. Powerful architectural forms, seemingly simple by nature with sustainable consciousness are at the core belief of the studio.

Mohamed Rabie

Mohamed Rabie is an artist deeply engaged in and interested with the identity and symbolisms of his home town Minya in Egypt. He was born in Minya in 1986 and went on to study at Cairo’s Faculty of Fine Arts and is now also a member of the Fine Arts Association and the General Federation of Arab Archeologists. As such, his interest and passion for the arts goes beyond his multilayered canvases, while also contributing to and informing his creativity as he works.

His painting practice borrows from different eras and cultures present within his rich heritage and grapples with questionings of historical entanglements and contemporary geographic dynamics. Looking at the theme of ‘Egyptian heritage’ his work includes a querying of graphic texts and visual languages, translating them into a contemporary context. Using broad brushstrokes and large swathes of colour across the picture plane, Rabie offers fragmentary clues from history, and rearticulates them within the gestures of his work. This results in a strange sense of familiarity and recognition within each painting, as though recalling a forgotten story and familiar narrative.

Natasha Barnes

Natasha Barnes, born in 1969, is one of South Africa’s most celebrated Abstract artists. Natasha’s paintings take inspiration found in her travels and her love for the rich African images surrounding her life, this can be seen in Indian Summer as there is an expression of freedom and unhindered exploration in the painting. Her experience is transferred onto canvas in a myriad of

expressive brush stroke and harmony of colour. Natasha’s paintings are abstract in that her creative process is to absorb the sensation of her physical experience then transfer to the canvas without looking at the subject. Her name is known in galleries across London, Paris and New York. Her paintings show a display of organic expressions and freedom while illustrating a sensitivity of colour and tonal relationships.

Whispers of beach trees & birds
2020
Acrylic on canvas
150 x 75 cm

Aimee Lindeque

Aimee Lindeque was born on a farm in rural Mpumalanga, South Africa. The unique beauty of the lowveld’s vegetation and landscape is a constant influence in her work and she still travels home frequently for inspiration. She majored in Sculpture and Art History at UCT’s Michaelis School of Fine Art, graduating in 2017. Sculpting in natural materials such as wood, ceramic and leather satisfied her innate love for organic colours and gave her an understanding of what could be achieved in a three-dimensional realm.

Lindeque enjoys working in watercolour and ink, and has been commissioned to complete large acrylic murals around Cape Town, as well as participating in a number of group exhibitions around South Africa. Since childhood, she has developed a deep love for Illustration and cartoons. The works of Jean Giraud and Martin Handford have had a large influence on her art.

Ben Coutouvidis

Ben Coutouvidis graduated from Rhodes University with a distinction in 1993 and has exhibited at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, as well as group shows throughout Cape Town and Johannesburg. In 2018 he held a solo exhibition with Eclectica Contemporary titled Limb. Well known for his atmospheric distilling paintings depicting the everyday and mundane; he recently began exploring sculptural mediums such as wood and metal. Here, we see the range of the artist as these sculptural forms work within the similar concepts but exist in a blunt presence and focus more on the human body.

Georgia Lane

Georgia was born in Cape Town and studied Graphic Design. She began her creative career in advertising with Ogilvy and Mather, before becoming a freelance food stylist. Her work in print, publishing and television for both local and international clients led to her becoming one of the country’s foremost food and lifestyle stylists. Georgia’s desire to paint was re-awakened while living on a Greek Island in 2007, when she joined a painting group run by a Massachusetts artist. Limited materials available on the island sparked her interest in finding a resourceful approach to her creative expression. She works from memory and painting becomes a meditative process in which she participates with subconscious aspects striving foremost for honesty and simplicity of thought.

Broken Lines
2020
mixed media on canvas
Group of 6
35.5 x 45 cm (each)

Haldane Martin

Haldane Martin is renowned for work that exhibits a stark identity and distinctive aesthetic. His earlier furniture designs have been heralded as significant contributions to the South African design industry. His latest pieces extend and experiment beyond his previous standards and continue to innovate and excite. The multi-award winning design firm has been featured in many local and international publications, exhibitions & conferences.

Ibrahim Khatab

Ibrahim Khatab was born in Cairo 1984, works as a co-teacher at Cairo University. He works across the mediums of painting, video art and installation. Khatab has been practicing since his youth – when he was 12 years old, he created billboards on cloths and walls that were put up in the streets of Cairo. This experience at the beginning of his practice continues to influence his work and ignited his passion for the Arabic calligraphy which can consistently be seen reflected in his works. Since 2007, his work has been presented frequently in group shows and solo exhibitions. He has garnered notable recognition locally, exhibiting across various art centres and galleries in Cairo, but has seen impressive exposure abroad, having exhibited widely – from Sweden to Cape Town to Oman. He has regularly participated in the annual Youth Salon, Cairo, and has also led many workshops in Visual Arts Center, Oman; Fine Arts Association, Doha; and Sharjah Children Biennial (2013). He has been awarded various prizes for his work and in 2018, obtained his PhD from Cairo University. Khatab is currently resident in Cairo, Egypt and represented by Eclectica Contemporary in Southern Africa.

Imiso Ceramics

Founded by Majolandile (Andile) Dyalvane and Zizipho Poswa, Imiso Ceramics is the much loved ceramics collective and studio based in Woodstock, Cape Town. ‘Imiso’ is a Xhosa word meaning ‘tomorrow’. Over the years, they’ve become know for creating ceramic pieces that are unapologetically modern but incorporate indigenous designs inspired by their environment and their history, as well as African traditions of scarification and surrealism. The pieces are conceptualised by studying and researching African artefacts and practices, which are then interpreted in clay to produce contemporary ceramic designs. Their Africasso series (Africa inspired by Africa) and the Scarified Collection, inspired by the African tradition of body scarification, are examples of their nuanced and conceptually rich creative practice.The Imiso Ceramics creations carry a dual essence as functional objects and works of art.

Kyu Sang Lee

Kyu Sang Lee’s photographic artistic practice draws on his experience within distinct regions and cultures of the world. Born in Seoul, Korea in 1993 and having moved to Cape Town in 2005, his artistic practice exhibits strong influences of Eastern, Western and African cultures. While completing his degree in Fine Art at Michaela’s School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town) he was awarded the Cecil Skotnes Award for Most Promising Artist. Kyu Sang Lee was also awarded the Simon Gerson Prize in 2016 for his graduating body of work as well as the Celeste Prize for Photography & Digital Graphics in 2017. Kyu Sang Lee’s knowledge of Music, Art, History and world issues is extensive and strongly influences his artmaking process. Working in predominantly black and white photography and more recently mixed media installation, He presents an interesting juxtaposition to ideas of the “lost”, driven by the concept of time and fate. Interlocking these notions with photography and sound, he focuses on constructing the realm of the metaphysical, the spiritual and the surreal.

Madoda Fani

Madoda Fani was born in 1975. He grew up in Gugulethu, Cape Town and fell in love with clay as a fine art student at Sivuyile College. He worked as a ceramic painter in various pottery studios, gradually developing his own pieces and style. His 2000 award at Le Salon International de l’artisanal de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso was a crucial step in affirming his work and distinctive approach. Having lived in Johannesburg and Cape Town, he has collaborated with and trained under numerous important ceramicists and master sculptors. Fani’s hand-coiled, burnished and smoke-fired pieces are a contemporary evolution of the traditional ceramics indigenous to Southern Africa. He has exhibited at Design Miami and The Salon Art + Design, and as part of the Christie’s London annual design auction. Fani has joined residency programmes in Argentina (2009) and France (2013), received first prize at the 2016 Ceramics Southern Africa Exhibition as well as the Ndebele Milling & Mining Premier Award at the 2015 G&W Mineral Resources Ceramics SA Gauteng Regional Exhibition.

Mlondolozi Hempe

Mlondolozi Hempe obtained his Bachelor of Architectural Studies Degree in 2011 and is currently registered with the South African Council of Architectural Professionals. His design style is influenced by everyday South Africa, his childhood and culture. A strong belief he holds is that of being able to transcend boundaries and challenge stereotypes by searching one’s life for inspiration for a conscious understanding, focusing on what comes to mind naturally and transforming that into something soulful and symbolic which is the true essence of design. Known by his peers for his dynamic thought process Hempe founded Umongo and Co-Founded Broad Based Design. Working in both architecture and design he has a unique advantage of understanding the space and the product. This is enhanced by the technical aptitude he has gathered over the years working on various design products. Hempe has collaborated across different disciplines, both independently across architecture and industrial design, and with artists, fashion designers and writers.

Samson Mnisi

Samson Mnisi was born in 1971 in Lesotho. He studied Fine Art and photography at FUBA Academy. Since completing his studies he has participated in many group and solo exhibitions, both locally and internationally. His art is a symbolic language of an abstract thought. Using patterns, lines, symbols and colour Mnisi explores and articulates his understanding of a ‘South African expression’. The recurring graphic symbols in his works signify visual codes of universal language representing peace, divergence, crossroads and eternal cycles. He sees himself as part of the timeless tradition of celebrating the human godliness from the first rock paintings, to the present time and beyond. Sometimes also known as Rain Maker which refers to his last name Mnisi which translates to ‘they make it rain’. Using art as alchemy, his creativity is enacted through intuitive gestures, colours and forms across textured surfaces. In this way, Mnisi explores different cosmic dimensions across his paintings and offers them for viewers to delve into and find clues and keys that will take them into their own journeys.

Sizwe Sama Sibisi

Serge Diakota Mabilama

Serge Diakota Mabilama is a Congolese visual artist who resides and practices in Kinshasa. Through his artwork, he reflects on the social and political environment of his homeland, focusing on universal identity as a central theme. Diakota translates his visions onto everyday objects as witnesses of the daily human experience. Domestic objects enter a new discourse through Diakota’s creative process of mixing various techniques such as engraving, painting and collage. His multidisciplinary use of objects is reflective of his intrinsic borderless ideology and resides as an African modernist echo of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘ready mades’ and ‘anti-art’ philosophy. Diakota’s work invites the viewer to reflect on transition, movement and migration as an attempt at creating a universal identity, while contributing to the discussion of moving Congolese art beyond geographical borders.

Sinethemba Xola

Wiid Design

Eclectica Collections