Serai Lobelo, 42, was born in the then Bophuthatswana “homeland”. He is a multidisciplinary artist and creative director based in Johannesburg. He studied multimedia design at Tshwane University of Technology and works at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), African luxury and speculative art.
A descendant of the Basarwa – the first people of southern Africa – Lobelo explores cultural memory, materiality and ancestral presence through painting, digital media and immersive installations. His practice blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary technology, drawing on Basarwa rock art, Afro-Surrealist cinema, Setswana praise poetry and user interface/user experience (UI/UX) principles. Central to his work is the digitisation of oral traditions into an audiovisual lexicon that preserves and honours IKS.
He is the founder of Ditoro Studios, a platform for storytelling and cultural reclamation. Lobelo’s work has been exhibited at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Norwest Gallery of Art in Detroit, RMB Talent Unlocked and TEDx Johannesburg, and featured in Wanted Online and Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine (Issue 17), affirming his voice in contemporary art discourse.
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Serai Lobelo, 42, was born in the then Bophuthatswana “homeland”. He is a multidisciplinary artist and creative director based in Johannesburg. He studied multimedia design at Tshwane University of Technology and works at the intersection of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), African luxury and speculative art.
A descendant of the Basarwa – the first people of southern Africa – Lobelo explores cultural memory, materiality and ancestral presence through painting, digital media and immersive installations. His practice blends traditional craftsmanship with contemporary technology, drawing on Basarwa rock art, Afro-Surrealist cinema, Setswana praise poetry and user interface/user experience (UI/UX) principles. Central to his work is the digitisation of oral traditions into an audiovisual lexicon that preserves and honours IKS.
He is the founder of Ditoro Studios, a platform for storytelling and cultural reclamation. Lobelo’s work has been exhibited at Kalashnikovv Gallery, Norwest Gallery of Art in Detroit, RMB Talent Unlocked and TEDx Johannesburg, and featured in Wanted Online and Al-Tiba9 Art Magazine (Issue 17), affirming his voice in contemporary art discourse.
