What does it mean to build an art collection shaped not by market trends or vast budgets, but by curiosity, shared memories, and an evolving personal archive? For South African academic and emerging collector Bakang Mputle, collecting is an intentional way of living alongside contemporary African art. Through an innovative collective model—a family art stokvel—and an eye for emerging artists who interrogate place, landscape, and identity, Mputle challenges traditional notions of art ownership.

We sat down with Bakang to talk about his early encounters with art, how collective buying can democratise collecting, and the artworks currently catching his eye on Latitudes.

LO: How did your journey with collecting art begin, and what was it that first drew you to collecting?

BM: My journey with collecting art began about four years ago when I came across a work by Ntate Phakela that resonated with me. But my interest in art began earlier. Around 2009, I became interested in photography as an art form, particularly through Santu Mofokeng. And later, when I moved to Johannesburg and studied at Wits, I had much more access to museums, galleries and exhibitions, which broadened my interest. When I started collecting, I also became interested in everything around the artwork itself. I enjoy thinking about how a work is framed, choosing a frame that complements it, where it should sit, and how it lives in a space. I realised I didn't just want to look at art in galleries or exhibitions. I wanted to live with works I connected with. Art fairs and exhibitions have become an important part of that because they allow me to discover artists. Sometimes I see something and know instantly I want it; sometimes a work stays with me for much longer before deciding to acquire it. For example, I first saw Treasure Mlima's Ukuvusa (Awakening) at the RMB Latitudes Art Fair in 2023, and I didn't acquire it then. I came back to it about a year or a year and a half later, and eventually decided that it was a work I wanted to live with. The same thing happened in a different way when I encountered Fasil Seboka and Aksah Seyoum through the G20 exhibition. Those encounters introduced me to artists whose practices I want to follow more closely.

Treasure Mlima, Held By Dreams.

LO: You’ve developed a somewhat unconventional approach to collecting through a stokvel, where you contribute regularly and take turns deciding what to buy. How does that process work, and what has it taught you about collecting art?

BM: I think for me, it has just been nice to experience collecting as a collective. I usually collect individually, so doing it together gave me another way of thinking about it. The collective idea is interesting to me because it shows that there are different ways of participating in the art world. For me, what's important is finding works that resonate with me and building a personal archive of this moment in African art. So, while collecting with others is one part of my experience, my individual collection is really where most of my collecting happens. However, collecting art through a stokvel with my cousins has been more than a transaction. It has taught me that collecting art can also be a way of preserving and archiving family history through our collective interest in art. Each work we acquire becomes connected to a particular moment in our lives, a conversation we had, a place we encountered, or an artist whose work resonated with us at that particular time.

What makes the experience especially meaningful is that the collection is not driven solely by individual taste or financial value. We take turns deciding what to acquire, which means that the collection becomes a reflection of both of our different perspectives, interests and ways of seeing. In that sense, the stokvel has taught me that collecting is as much about building relationships and creating memories as it is about owning objects.

It has also made collecting feel more accessible and communal. Contributing regularly, even in small amounts, has shown me that you don't necessarily need significant wealth to participate in the art ecosystem. You can start with what you have, collect with others, and gradually build something meaningful. 

LO: Because the artworks are collectively owned, your approach challenges the idea that collecting has to be about individual ownership. What does it mean to you to share ownership of an artwork, and has it changed the way you think about collecting?

BM: For me, the experience with collecting as a collective (stokvel of some sort) has opened up another way of thinking about collecting. Usually, we think about collecting as an individual. You see a work, you have the money to buy it, and you take it home. With collecting as a collective, people come together, contribute, and when it's your month, you get the artwork, and you own it. So, I think that can feel less intimidating because you don't need to see yourself as a big traditional collector. You're someone who cares about a work of art. And I think we're seeing more of that. More ways of coming together around art and making it part of everyday life. And I think that's important. Art doesn't just exist in museums and galleries or exhibitions. Something shifts when an artwork comes into someone's home and lives with them. So whether through various collective models, it opens that door. It allows more people to say, I saw this, I connected with it, and now I can acquire it. And that feels like a much richer way of bringing art into the rhythms of life.

LO: There’s often a perception that collecting art is only for people with a lot of money. What have you learnt about making collecting accessible and possible, regardless of budget?

BM: The idea that collecting is only for people with a lot of money comes from the idea that you have to start with expensive or established artists. My experience has taught me that collecting can be more accessible if you're open to emerging talent and willing to discover artists early in their careers. For me, it's less about how much you spend and more about finding a work that resonates with you. Sometimes you see something, and you know immediately that you want it, and sometimes you see a work and think about it and come back to it later. I think there are different ways of making collecting possible. You can start with one work that speaks to you, you can collect emerging artists, or you can find ways of collecting with other people. For me, the important thing is that there's intention behind what you choose and that the works become meaningful to you over time.

Aksah Seyoum, Rites of Flesh V.

LO: When you look at the collection you’ve built so far, what does it represent to you? And what would you like it to become over time?

BM: When I look at the collection I've built so far, I think of it as a personal archive. I'm interested in collecting artists of my time and looking at where they're going. Often young or emerging artists, not only in South Africa, but across the African continent. There's not one particular language or aesthetic, but I'm drawn to Fasil Seboka's Reflection I, the layering, the movement between figuration and abstraction, which reminded me of Koloane. It's not that Fasil is doing what Koloane did; it's that I recognise a similar interest in the city and how one can represent a kind of urban environment. And with Treasure Mlima's Ukuvusa (Awakening), the Supawood carving with oil-based ink and paint, that gives a different physical quality to Fasil's painting. And Treasure's practice moves between carving, painting, printmaking and digital imagery, so there's a different exploration of material. With Aksah Seyoum's Rites of Flesh V, I was drawn to the figures and the way the bodies are treated almost as silhouettes. That gave the collection another way of thinking about the figure. Then Boemo Diale's print, it resonated with me because it was something I liked. And Ntate Phakela's Manuel is there because he's where my collecting journey started. So, when I put all of these works together, I'm seeing different artists responding to their own experiences and their own environments, and I'm making connections between them. And for me, that's what makes the collection interesting. Over time, I'd like it to become a stronger archive of the art of my time, particularly artists working in South Africa and across the African continent. So, it's not framed as a neat aesthetic project, but a record of what I notice, what I look at and the connections I see between different artists. Is that it?

LO: If you had to choose three artworks from Latitudes today to add to your collection, what would you choose — and what is it about each work that speaks to you?

BM: So first, Tsebo by Hoek Swaratlhe. What interests me about this work is the way it brings in archiving, space, and place. I think about the township, the house, and questions of ownership and property. That connects with my interest in geography and how spaces carry histories. I like that it makes me think about those things without being overly literal. It feels like a small archive of a place, and the histories attached to it.

Second, 4-4-2 by Pebofatso Mokoena. I really like the colours in this work and the move into abstraction. I'm becoming more interested in collecting abstract works because I like that sense of being able to look at something and have different readings of it over time. With this work, the colour is what caught my eye, but I think it's the abstraction itself that would make me want to live with it.

And third, Yakhal'inkomo, 2023 by Abongile Sidzumo. I'm drawn to this because I see something in it that reminds me of landscape and geography. It almost reads like a landscape, but it can be understood as abstract. That ambiguity is what I find interesting. Because of my interest in geography and spatial identities, I am drawn to works that make me think about the landscape and how we understand it. I think the three works together also say something about where my collecting is going. There's not one particular aesthetic, but I'm interested in artists who make me look differently at things I already find interesting, whether that's space and ownership, abstraction and colour, or landscape and geography. So, these three would add different dimensions to the collection, while still speaking to the way I'd like to collect: discovering artists of my time and looking closely at where their practices are going.