THK Gallery at 1-54 London 2021

Pardon Mapondera (b. 1992, Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe) is a full-time artist, currently living and working in Cape Town, South Africa. 

Growing up in Zimbabwe, his education was affected by Zimbabwe’s economic and political upheavals, but he persevered and completed his education. He applied at the National Gallery Visual Art and Design (former British American Tobacco School of Art) after being encouraged to do so by his brother and mentor, the well-established visual artist Wallen Mapondera, and successfully graduated in 2016. 

He is represented in a number of prominent collections, both in Africa and Europe, and received awards and recognition for his work. 

In August 2020, Pardon Mapondera was a runner-up in The Emergence Art Prize, which was organised by THK Gallery with support from Rand Merchant Bank.

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Pierre le Riche (b.1986, Port Elizabeth) is a conceptual artist with a practice spanning many mediums and techniques, and widely recognised for his dynamic use of string and textiles. He uses thread as structural element – both a connection point, an unravelling, and a space demarcation – and evokes a complex set of ready-made associations through material and colour use: exploring permeable gender roles and liminal identities. Weaving a complex set of associations, the threads running through his practice tap into a rich seam of metaphor and ambiguity.

He has participated in many projects and exhibitions in South Africa and abroad, and has worked with the likes of Cartier, Daimler, Power Play and Trenery. He has recently showed adaptations of his Rainbow Room installation in the United States of America and the People's Republic of China; both being part of traveling exhibitions.

Le Riche holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Art.

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Lulama Wolf (b. 1993) is a visual artist who lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

At the intersection of Neo-Expressionism and Modern African Art, Wolf interrogates the pre-colonial African experience through the contemporary mind by using smearing, scraping, and deep pigment techniques that were used in vernacular architecture, and the patterns created largely by women to decorate traditional African homes.

History and the proof of life are the core concepts in her work. Where there has rarely prior been reference of life in black spirituality, she counters that narrative by creating two dimensional paintings to embody the simplicity and deep spiritual power of the native eye. Her motivation is both tender and protective of her imaginary world, and her symbolic view of how her world looks into an alternate universe. She is set on creating both a photographic and graphic experience, that morphs and shapeshifts into a higher dimensional plane.

"My work carries my spirit, before it carries a message. My intuition plays a vital role in the direction I go and then I compartmentalise with what I prioritise. I represent different parts of my self including abstraction, curiosity, mythology, spirituality and introspection. Blackness is vital in my work because it is created by a black woman despite the medium or language it speaks, it is vital because proof of existence is rare in the black community, information is shared but isn’t sustained in ways that are knowledgeable to us right now. I express my yearning for answers and clarity in ways that make my blackness clear even when the work is abstract. My practice embodies subtlety in a form of texture and expression, a curious mix of ambiguity and curiosity. I experiment with different textures and moulds that are formed from the earth."

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