Kagiso Patrick Mautloa
Kagiso Patrick Mautloa studied art at Rorke’s Drift Art Centre, KwaZulu Natal and at the Mofolo Art Centre in Soweto. He has participated in Thupelo and Triangle workshops, held numerous solo and group exhibitions, and has work in a number of important public collections across South Africa.
His work studies the street life around him and his studio at the Bag Factory (Fordsburg Artists Studios) in downtown Johannesburg. The women roasting mielies (corn) over coal-fired tin braziers on street corners, the wholesalers and hawkers selling cheap imports from the Far East, the street traders who eke out a living with a few items on a small board near the busy intersections. Working with figurative elements, abstract textures and multiple colour overlays, the work exploits the potential of lithography. Mautloa has made innovative use of drawing materials for these prints, using found objects as stencils through which to spray tusche and toner. Textures are an important part of Mautloa’s work, as he works he notices the mundane surfaces around him and will sometimes use these in his work.
Unexpected things like the rough surface of a well-used cutting board, or a worn-out cotton rag, hold a new fascination and beauty for him. Delicate drawing and seemingly random splatter, entice the viewer and challenge one to look at the world in a new way. Kagiso Patrick Mautloa is an artist whose work eludes a neat definition, as he is as comfortable in his abstract work as he is in the more figurative imagery. Most of his work is in oils and acrylic but he has also included found objects and collage in his two dimensional work and has also done a number of installations as well as doing photographic work.
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