Artist, Johannesburg (b. 1979)
Vusi Beauchamp, born in Johannesburg, studied printmaking and painting at the Tshwane University of Technology and Graphic Design at Damelin.
He describes his work as encompassing being an artist, multimedia designer, and art director. Beauchamp’s paintings are created by using various methods, including spray painting and stencilling as well as materials such as crayons, charcoal, oil sticks and acrylic paints.
His work comments on social issues, politics and events that make up the current South African social/political landscape, and are considered the artistic version of satirical journalism and social critique, often somewhat controversial. Humour is an important ingredient, and is heightened through the typical ‘stereotyping’ by the media of local politics and politicians.
These works are the artistic version of satirical journalism and social critique, often controversial. In plays, the comic book genre, paintings, and prints the artist does not attempt only to lampoon local personages, but seeks simultaneously to depict their stereotyping by the media. This dual vision (of looking at events both from the ‘inside’ and the ‘outside’) reflects the way in which perception is shaped by the media and subsequently becomes reality, and affords the viewer a glimpse of contemporary local politics as well as lived experience in the urban jungle.
Vusi Beauchamp currently lives and works in Johannesburg and Pretoria, with a studio based at August House.