Atang Tshikare
Atang Tshikare is a Cape Town based, self-taught multidisciplinary artist. His practice has evolved over twenty years from street art and drawings, to limited-edition collectible design at the intersection of sculptural furniture and functional art, moving more recently to fine art sculpture.
His voice resonates with a visionary African identity that embraces a global contemporary art language.
Born in Bloemfontein in 1980, Atang was influenced from a young age by the visual storytelling and graphic style of his father, an anti-Apartheid activist and illustrator for various pan-African publications and art magazines.
Founding Zabalazaa Designs in 2010, Atang collaborated with local artists and worked on commissions such as Chimurenga Magazine, Adidas Originals, BMW, MTV Base, Belvedere Vodka and Nando’s, to name a few.
Atang has been widely exhibited in South Africa and internationally by Southern Guild gallery (2012-2020), most recently at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2020). Further exhibitions include Intersect Chicago (2020), Intersect Aspen (2020), the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (2019). He was a featured designer at 100% Design South Africa (2014) and the Design Indaba Emerging Creatives (2012). His international exhibitions have included PAD London (2019), Design Miami/ Basel (2014, 2016, 2018), Design Discourse in Austria (2016), Design Basel (2014), Design Days Dubai (2013), and group shows in Amsterdam (2018), Switzerland (2015) and Germany (2013).
Atang Tshikare’s work to date has sprung from the dynamic negotiations between an urban dialogue emerging in contemporary art and design consciousness across Africa, and his intuitive sense of primal matter rooted in personal heritage and Southern African cultural knowledge. As he casts his nets towards the global horizon, he is deepening his understanding through his work which will include a 2021 show dedicated to his firstborn son Peo, and a book about his practice.
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