Artist, Johannesburg (b. 1987)
Themba Khumalo, born in Soweto, Johannesburg, graduated from Artist Proof Studio in printmaking, where he obtained a Design Foundation Certificate. He went on to do a professional printmaking development course under the sponsorship of Pinpoint One, at Artist Proof Studio in 2009 where he was an intern in the silkscreen unit and special project team.
Khumalo is interested in exploring different mediums, such as charcoal drawings and painting. He has been involved in a number of group exhibitions, commissions and special projects, such as painting murals in the Eastern Cape and being invited to exhibit in a group show at Isolate del Cinema festival in Rome, Italy.
Themba Khumalo’s work reflects the social, political and spiritual landscape in current South Africa, and the understanding of land as identity. Using current news headlines as an entry into some of the injustice the landscape observes, these meanings are made visible through the nuances expressed in the drawings, painting with coffee to mimic the earth and soil tones and use of vernacular titles. With the attempt to saturate the land, the artists looks at a piece of land measured through the size of the drawings. These renditions portray pieces of land as witnesses to the dispossession, illegal occupation as protest, loss of hope and yet through the artist depicts land as refuge, a space of faith and healing.
Themba Khumalo currently lives and works in Johannesburg, with a studio based at August House.