Thuli Lubisi
Thuli Lubisi, a Johannesburg based visual artist and printmaker, was born in 1993 in Atteridgeville, Pretoria. In 2011 Lubisi completed her matric at P.J Simelane Secondary School and in 2013 she obtained a Computer Literacy certificate at Birnam Business College. Thuli then went on to study Visual art at Funda Art Centre in Diepkloof, Soweto during 2015.
During 2016, Lubisi enrolled at Artist Proof Studio for a printmaking programme and, upon graduating, she began an internship at the Studios Education unit, assisting as a printmaking facilitator.
Since 2017, Lubisi has been involved in various printmaking and mural projects as well as being part of group exhibitions such as the Joburg and Turbine Art fairs with Artist Proof Studio, in collaboration with Cartier and Strauss & Co respectively. In 2019 Lubisi was one of the artists commissioned by The Trinity Session to make artworks to be installed at the Leonardo Building; in addition Lubisi’s artworks have also been commissioned by the Bidvest bank SA and the HSBC bank.
Artist Statement
My work is a celebration of African heritage and embraces our diversity. I combine patterns that derive from fabrics/textiles that are associated with different cultural groups, to make them hybrids. No pattern dominates or overpowers the other (suggesting cohesion); they create shapes that are a metaphor for a new landscape that is free from its historical, political and cultural constraints.
‘Segregated’ and ‘Apart’ represent the new norm which has been created by this pandemic. The lives that we were accustomed to have been interrupted; because we’re separated from each other and there is now a void. As we slowly resume more normality I’m hoping that, with our differences, we can and will be able to form stronger and cohesive relations and keep the bonds that we have formed ‘intact’.
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