Pebofatso Mokoena was born in Alberton in August 1993, eight months before South Africa's first democratic elections. He completed high school at Bracken High School in 2011, earning a distinction in Visual Art and the Design School Art Trophy, before completing his NDip (Visual Art) at the University of Johannesburg in 2014. He has participated in numerous competitions and curated exhibitions, including the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Diptych, That Art Fair (2015), Fresh Produce (2014), Inner Nature in Cape Town, Fortunes Remixed, and South African Voices: A New Generation of Printmakers in Washington DC.
Mokoena's practice explores how organic and man-made geographies shape multiple environments. Working primarily in painting and printmaking, and extending into drawing, film, and online platforms, he draws on personal narrative and experimental enquiry to make sense of an increasingly interconnected and chaotic world. His work moves between critical discourses in visual art, architecture, global culture, and aesthetics, questioning what it means to exist in a world that is, in theory, growing smaller.
His work is held in the Springs Art Library Collection, the South African Embassy Art Collection in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, and various private collections.
Mokoena first collaborated with David Krut Workshop in 2018, producing the hard-ground etching Statistical Weakness, later shown at the 2019 Fine Art Print Fair, Turbine Art Fair, and LATITUDES Art Fair. This built on a relationship formed during his 2016 internship at David Krut Projects. In 2019, he was one of five artists commissioned to create a multi-colour silkscreen print for LATITUDES Art Fair's VIP Package, resulting in ¾ Progress on the Edge of Play, made in collaboration with printer Roxy Kaczmarek.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Internal Probes, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg
2018 Inside Jobs, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2017 The Pebofatso Experience, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 ARCOLisboa, First Floor Gallery, Harare
2019 Songs of Sankofa, First Floor Gallery, Harare
2018 Open Studio, Nazdik Precinct, Tehran
2018 ArtNext Art Fair, Hong Kong
2017 Disclosure, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg
2017 Atomic Peace, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2016 POST-ITS, Constitutional Hill, Johannesburg
2016 Between South Africa and Iran, NoMans Gallery, Tehran
2016 Beasts of No Nation, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
2015 30|30, Springs Art Gallery, Johannesburg
2014 South African Voices, Washington DC
2014 Shared Inheritance, The Cosmopolitan, Johannesburg
2013 Diptych, Assemblage, Johannesburg
2013–2014 Fortunes Remixed, Port Elizabeth/Johannesburg/Cape Town
Selected Residencies
2019 First Floor Gallery, Zimbabwe
2018 Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2018 KOOSHK, Tehran
2017 Nirox Foundation
Awards
2019 Emerging Painters Competition Finalist
2019 JP Morgan/Arts and Culture Trust Abadali Artists' Co-creation Programme
2015 Assemblage/African Arts Trust Studio Bursary
Pebofatso Mokoena was born in Alberton in August 1993, eight months before South Africa's first democratic elections. He completed high school at Bracken High School in 2011, earning a distinction in Visual Art and the Design School Art Trophy, before completing his NDip (Visual Art) at the University of Johannesburg in 2014. He has participated in numerous competitions and curated exhibitions, including the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Diptych, That Art Fair (2015), Fresh Produce (2014), Inner Nature in Cape Town, Fortunes Remixed, and South African Voices: A New Generation of Printmakers in Washington DC.
Mokoena's practice explores how organic and man-made geographies shape multiple environments. Working primarily in painting and printmaking, and extending into drawing, film, and online platforms, he draws on personal narrative and experimental enquiry to make sense of an increasingly interconnected and chaotic world. His work moves between critical discourses in visual art, architecture, global culture, and aesthetics, questioning what it means to exist in a world that is, in theory, growing smaller.
His work is held in the Springs Art Library Collection, the South African Embassy Art Collection in Washington, D.C., the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, and various private collections.
Mokoena first collaborated with David Krut Workshop in 2018, producing the hard-ground etching Statistical Weakness, later shown at the 2019 Fine Art Print Fair, Turbine Art Fair, and LATITUDES Art Fair. This built on a relationship formed during his 2016 internship at David Krut Projects. In 2019, he was one of five artists commissioned to create a multi-colour silkscreen print for LATITUDES Art Fair's VIP Package, resulting in ¾ Progress on the Edge of Play, made in collaboration with printer Roxy Kaczmarek.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 Internal Probes, David Krut Projects, Johannesburg
2018 Inside Jobs, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2017 The Pebofatso Experience, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 ARCOLisboa, First Floor Gallery, Harare
2019 Songs of Sankofa, First Floor Gallery, Harare
2018 Open Studio, Nazdik Precinct, Tehran
2018 ArtNext Art Fair, Hong Kong
2017 Disclosure, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg
2017 Atomic Peace, Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2016 POST-ITS, Constitutional Hill, Johannesburg
2016 Between South Africa and Iran, NoMans Gallery, Tehran
2016 Beasts of No Nation, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
2015 30|30, Springs Art Gallery, Johannesburg
2014 South African Voices, Washington DC
2014 Shared Inheritance, The Cosmopolitan, Johannesburg
2013 Diptych, Assemblage, Johannesburg
2013–2014 Fortunes Remixed, Port Elizabeth/Johannesburg/Cape Town
Selected Residencies
2019 First Floor Gallery, Zimbabwe
2018 Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2018 KOOSHK, Tehran
2017 Nirox Foundation
Awards
2019 Emerging Painters Competition Finalist
2019 JP Morgan/Arts and Culture Trust Abadali Artists' Co-creation Programme
2015 Assemblage/African Arts Trust Studio Bursary
