Yonela Makoba
Yonela Makoba is an artist born and raised in Mthatha, currently based in Cape Town, South Africa. She graduated from the University of Cape
Town with a BSc in Environmental and Geographic Science. The multidisciplinary artist works with photography, performance art, sculpture, mixed
media, and printmaking. All her explorations, whether African spirituality, memory, body politics, the scientific method, or loss, characterise her
interest in understanding herself and the world around her. She draws inspiration from everyday conversations, her plants, dreams, intshomi
(Xhosa folklore), and history. Her work is a space for remembering, resolving, and processing the many intersections she encounters on her
journey, and it invites anyone who so needs this space for themselves.
In February 2020, the artist had her first solo offering titled 'Kwantlandlolo; a prayer for tabula rasa' hosted by Orms to complete the Orms Circle
Residency of the previous year. Since 2016, she has participated in several group exhibitions in independent spaces and established galleries and
art fairs like the Investec Art Fair, Latitudes Visual Art Fair, Smac Gallery, Ebony Curated, and AVA Gallery. In October 2020, she was one of 8 artists
selected for the Bodyland Residency in Hogsback, South Africa, hosted by the Victory of the Word.
With her most recent body of work, 'iYeza neThemba Entlango,' I entered into a series of meditations dedicated to remembering, weaving
together the memories, and inviting my family members into this space for collective remembering | and re-membering. These durational pieces
follow the same practice as the woodcut prints of the Amathole region of 2020. The artist dedicates time and puts her body to task to cultivate,
curve, and weave a space to process.
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