Totang Motoloki

B. 1982, Botswana. Lives and works in Gaborone.

Totang Motoloki is a contemporary visual artist whose practice is grounded in the material and emotional textures of everyday life in Botswana. Working primarily with found and repurposed materials, Motoloki reimagines objects discarded by modern life into layered narratives that speak of memory, belonging, and resilience. His assemblages, reliefs, and mixed-media works reveal an enduring fascination with the intersection of the domestic and the historical, the places where the personal and communal stories of Botswana converge.

Born in 1982 and raised in Goo-Tau village in Botswana’s Central District, Motoloki’s earliest exposure to art came through his own experimentation during secondary school. Largely self-taught, he began developing his craft in the early 2000s as a member of the Thapong Visual Arts Centre in Gaborone, which became a vital site for exchange and mentorship among emerging artists. His creative journey reflects both independence and community: a deliberate shaping of an artistic language rooted in the tactile realities of local life while resonating with global conversations on materiality, sustainability, and postcolonial identity.

Motoloki’s works frequently incorporate wood, metal, wire, corrugated iron, and other found materials sourced from construction sites and scrapyards around Gaborone. These materials, once symbols of decay or neglect, are transfigured through his process into sculptural reflections on continuity and survival. His 2024 series Life Pieces, exhibited at the FNB Art Joburg, was acclaimed for its poetic use of scrap to explore memory and the fragments of everyday existence. The works drew parallels between physical assemblage and the emotional reconstruction of identity in rapidly changing African cities.

In 2018, his painting Traditional Home was acquired into the Imago Mundi Collection, situating him within a global archive of contemporary artists from over 150 countries. Motoloki’s inclusion in such international collections affirms his role in expanding the visibility of Botswana’s visual-arts movement beyond regional borders. His work now also features on digital platforms such as Latitudes Online, further connecting Botswana’s art ecosystem with the broader pan-African and global art market.

Beyond the studio, Motoloki’s practice is defined by a deep ethical engagement with sustainability and the social life of materials. He views found objects not as debris but as repositories of memory, objects that once held purpose in human hands and now bear the quiet dignity of reuse. This sensibility aligns his work with a lineage of African contemporary artists such as El Anatsui, Nnenna Okore, and Willie Bester, who transform remnants of the everyday into monuments of cultural resilience.

In 2025, Motoloki is slated to participate in an international Silk Road art initiative, creating new works that dialogue between Botswana’s material culture and the global histories of trade, movement, and exchange. This project marks a significant step in his evolving international presence and his continuing commitment to storytelling through texture and transformation.

Totang Motoloki’s art embodies a distinctly Botswana vernacular modernism, anchored in the land, shaped by scarcity, and elevated through imagination. His visual language insists that creativity is both an act of reclamation and remembrance: to gather what has been forgotten and make it speak again.