GUERRILLA MOSAIC BOMBING PROJECT
Street art has the potential to benefit urban environments by creating a safer community, generating relationships between constituents and businesses, and increasing economic revenue. In New York City, scholars of urban art found that an increase in street art led to relatively low rates of crime when compared to other neighbourhoods of the city. Sociologist Gregory Snyder describes this relationship as mutually beneficial, stating that “residents, tourists, and high-end boutiques co-exist with graffiti vandalism in a relatively symbiotic fashion.”
Banksy elevated guerrilla street art into a revered artform, his clever stencils commenting on political, social,
cultural and ecological indiscretions.
Our project will contribute to the City of Cape Town’s goals to stimulate tourism through culture and heritage exploration, by proposing a public art intervention for Cape Town’s
inner city that will also benefit artists and artisans by creating a work opportunity.
Fanie Buys
Fanie Buys (1993 -) is a multi-media artist, working primarily in
oils. His figurative style of painting explores representation of the
human figure as reflected in the media, focusing on passé press
releases, the Royal Family and gracefully ageing film
stars. Referencing this mix of pop culture and personal
experience, Buys is concerned with
how these images punctuate and inform lived experience. His oil painting replications become unique whilst still maintaining the image’s original function - so that one experiences nostalgia, even without the original experience.
Born in Gansbaai in the Western Cape of South Africa, he currently lives and works in Cape Town. Buys obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in 2016, majoring in print media and obtaining a distinction in Studiowork. Buys was a co-recipient of the Judy Steinberg Award for Painting and the Simon Gerson Award for an exceptional body of work.
Notable solo exhibitions include Happy Birthday Jesus! at 99 Loop Gallery in Cape Town (2019). He has participated in a number of group exhibitions and his work is included in private and corporate collections, including Spier and Nando’s collections.
Kilmany-Jo Liversage
Kilmany-Jo Leverage (1975 -) is a Cape Town based artist who
works in spray paint, acrylics and mixed media. She has
exhibited extensively in South Africa and across the globe. In
2005, she was awarded the UNESCO Aschberg - Medellin
Residency in Colombia, where she became involved in the street
art scene. Liversage draws inspiration from street culture and
strives to depict a universal sense of the familiar,
paradoxically often using complete strangers as subjects. She
randomly sources image references from mass media and
social networks, using these to create vibrant, large-scale,
graffiti-style portraits that evoke within the viewer a feeling of
recognition.
Her work is included in private and corporate collections, including Spier and Nando’s collections.
She obtained an HDip Fine Arts (Painting) (Distinction) at Free State Technikon in 1994 and a BTech in Fine Arts at Free State Technikon, 1997.
Notable exhibitions include Back 2 Back to Biennale installation, 55th International Art Exhibition, Venice, 2013 and Chroma718 at Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg in 2018.
Xolile Mtakatya
Xolile Mtakatya (1968 - ) is a former youth activist and political detainee. Mtakatya began drawing on his prison cell walls to relieve his frustration and was encouraged to study art after his release. Mtakatya's work is characterised by vibrant colour combinations, well-developed draftsmanship, a strong sense of line and engaging characters caught in typical local adventures. His work is concerned with everyday life in all its variety; his artwork a means to record and process his personal experiences, and to engage with issues pertaining to history, poetry, African legends, rituals and the politics of gender. Mtakatya’s use of bright colours and naive perspective belie the melancholic and even disturbing messages often revealed on closer inspection.
This Capetonian started off attending drawing lessons at the Community Arts Project and this led to him completing a Diploma at the Foundation School of Art in 1993. Mtakatya has attended numerous workshops and residencies, involved as both participating artist and teacher. Mtakatya has participated in over thirty group exhibitions and several solo exhibitions. His work is a numerous local and international collections, including Spier and Nando’s.
Robyn Pretorius
Robyn Pretorius (1988 -) explores likeness, visual interpretation, and storytelling in her portraiture. She wishes to convey a celebration of diversity and identity. Inspired by different personalities that surround her, her creative process employs experimentation with a range of mark-making media to express a visual interpretation of the muse and the unique stories these encounters bring. Central to this process is the realistic rendering of the human form with contemporary motifs. She is driven by the belief that the more we celebrate difference in experience, the more we feel connected.
Born in Belhar, Cape Town, Pretorius started her art journey at a young age. When she was awarded “Artist of the Month” by Radisson Red in Cape Town it opened-up new opportunities for her. Her work was selected for the top 100 portraits in the Sanlam Portrait Awards in 2017. She has collaborated with several local brands and attended her first residency at Glo’art in Belgium (2018).
Pretorius has participated in numerous group exhibitions locally and abroad - notably Knoop/Knot: Louis & Friends, GUS, Gallery University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town in 2020.
Meshack Shakes Tembani
Meshack ‘Shakes’ Tembani (1975 - ) loved art from a young age and started exploring different avenues of expression. With a distinctive and stylised technique, he invites viewers to contemplate the beautiful in the seemingly ordinary, by using bold and flat colours. Tembani’s paintings are Inspired by the everyday experiences faced by his community, often concentrating on strong female figures from his neighbourhood.
Tembani grew up in the New Crossroads township (Cape Town) where he still lives and works. In 1998 he completed a Certificate in Visual Arts with the Community Arts Project. This was followed by a certificate in screen-printing, papier-mâché, fabric painting and craft at Ruth Prowse College of Art and Design (1999). He then completed Diploma in Adult Education at the University of Cape Town in 2003 and a Product Design and Development Course at Madesa the next year.
He has had several solo exhibitions and has participated in many group exhibitions both locally and abroad. Tembani participated in We’ve come to take you home #1 a group exhibition at the Michaelis Galleries. Tembani’s work has been commissioned by companies and institutions and appears in several collections globally, including Spier and Nando’s.