Tusevo Landu
Tusevo Landu (b. 1997, Kinshasa, DRC) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans across acrylic painting, printmaking, drawing, and mixed media. Initially trained at Artists Proof Studio, Landu has since evolved into a self-taught painter, driven by an insatiable curiosity for the textures of human expression. His practice is rooted in the interplay of symbolism and materiality, where traditional motifs collide with contemporary experimentation.
Central to Landu’s work is the reimagining of cultural artefacts particularly Congolese ceremonial masks as vessels of transformation. These motifs, stripped of their ritual context, become abstracted studies of identity, memory, and the subconscious. Through layered brushwork, tactile printmaking, and fragmented compositions, he explores how visual language can distort or reveal the narratives we inherit. The mask, in his paintings, is neither relic nor ornament but a dynamic interlocutor between the past and present.
His paintings acrylic and oil on repurposed shade cloth are acts of artistic refuge. The material itself is charged with meaning: in Kinshasa and Johannesburg, these woven grids are the makeshift ceilings of street vendors, shielding them from sun and rain as they labor. Landu hijacks this everyday armour, transforming it into a canvas.
For him, the shade cloth is both muse and antagonist. Its rough, gridded texture resists fluid brushwork, forcing improvisation. This tension mirrors his broader artistic ethos. The shade cloth, a symbol of transient survival in public spaces, becomes his studio battleground. Where others might see a utilitarian object.The shade cloth, a symbol of temporary refuge in urban life, transforms into a metaphor for artistic resilience.
Education
Hoerskool Die Fakkel
Artists Proof Studio
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2026: Ain’t Shit Funny But A Joke, Ni... Association For The Arts (AVA), Cape Town, ZA
2025: Honestly, I Just Wanna Have A Good Time, In Collaboration Host X Bestwood, Cape Town, ZA
2024: Chill Bro, It’s Not Too Deep, Cubicle solo exhibition, Everard Read
2023: Introduction, Latitude Centre For The Art, Johannesburg, ZA
2022: Now or Never, Simchowitz, Pasadena, California, USA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2025: As Tides Change, Under The Aegis, Cape Town, ZA
2025: you’re so vain you probably think this group show is about you,
Girls, Girls, Girl, Cape Town ZA
2025: Layers Of Being; Art As A Portal To Identity, Under The Aegis, Cape Town, ZA
2024: Summer Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, ZA
2024: Ilizwi Liyamisa: The power of the voice, 16 on Lerotholi and Everard Read, Cape Town. ZA
2024: Winter Group Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, ZA
2024: Winter Show, Everard Read franschhoek, Cape Town
2024: Blurring The Lines, The Fourth, Cape Town, ZA
2023: Winter Group Show, Everard Read, Cape Town, ZA
2020: (un)Masked, Artists Proof Studio, Johannesburg ZA
2020: The lockdown collection, Artists Proof Studio and the University Of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, ZA
2019: Louis Khela Maghubela and Douglas Portway, Artists Proof Studio and Straus & Co, Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, ZA
2019: Fundamentalist Rationalism, Eclectica Print Gallery, Cape Town, ZA
ARTIST RESIDENCIES:
2022: Cape Town Art Residency, Cape Town, ZA WORKSHOP
2024: Africa South Art Initiative Lithograph Workshop in collaboration with Michealis School of Fine Art
ACCOLADES/COLLECTION:
2024: Michealis School of Fine Art art collection
2024: Africa South Art Initiative ( ASAI) art collection
2023: Cape Grace Hotel Art Collection
2022: Simchowitz Collection, Los Angeles, USA
2019: Finalists of Fundamentalist Rationalism Print Competition, Eclectica Gallery, Cape Town ZA
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