Buhle Nkalashe (b. 1994, South African) is a Cape Town-based independent artist who has been practicing since 2011. He is a painter who incorporates mixed media like Oil & Acrylic paint, & Oil pastels. He obtained his BA in Graphic Design from the Cape Town Creative Academy (2018). After working in advertising for two years, He shifted his focus to Visual Arts in 2019 to become a full-time artist. Throughout his life, Nkalashe has been exposed to many cultural events and ceremonies, particularly in his isiXhosa culture. In these gatherings, people perform rituals and ask for a blessing.

During the celebration, songs are sung which tell stories and traditional clothes are worn, mainly depicted in weddings. Traditional clothes are very colourful and have patterns. This can be seen in beadwork. Nkalashe is fascinated by the idea that patterns and colour can be strong symbols of the South African ethnicity. He noticed that the Xhosa, Zulu, and Ndebele patterns are similar in terms of colour and felt that he needs to reimage these patterns together in a contemporary African setting to create a new hybrid South Africa.