Nelson Makamo is a celebrated, contemporary South African visual artist from Modimolle, Limpopo best known for his charcoal and oil paintings that redresses decades of images that have portrayed African children in destitute. He said … Art is one of the things that doesn’t choose the audience: the audience chooses it, which is true, and it is also true that art can be activism. In his work, is a deliberate dedication to amplifying the voices of African children, while he strives to capture everyday people going about their ordinary lives as the contemporary world accelerates around them.
I his words …
In my work, I reflect on the movement of culture amongst the youth living in and around the city. My observation is that there is an exchange between people where we adopt each other’s cultures that are relevant to our respective ages. I am greatly fascinated by this, and how we in turn manage our identity with different personas. Therefore, my work aims to show that we are always changing and moving on a path of self-discovery. My work does not represent a certain group of people, it moves across cultures and generations.
Renaissance describes a moment when the quantity and quality of intellectual and artistic output are perceived as signalling “a monumental historical shift” in the life of a people, nation, or region.
The Time magazine cover – The Art of Optimism, the art of hope was such a moment, a moving expression portraying the image of an African child. I guess … Patrice Lumumba saw it when he said …“History will have its say one day. Not the history they teach in Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations but the history taught in the country set free from colonialism and its puppet rulers. Africa will write her own history and it will be a history of glory and dignity.”
It is Time
