(Oil pastel on paper by Sfiso Ka-Mkame)Virgins and Graces is the title of an exhibition of oil pastel on paper by Sfiso Ka-Mkame which has just opened at the African Art Centre.
Sfiso Ka-Mkame was born in Clermont, on the periphery of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal on May 3, 1963. He says that he remembers drawing in the sand and modeling cattle from clay as a young boy and drawing geography maps for his friends at school because he was good at it. At this stage Ka-Mkame says that he had no idea that his interest and competence in illustration and drawing was considered to be ‘Art’.
In Grade 3, although there was no art teacher, he was introduced to handicrafts and drawing. He attended the Abangani Open School in Durban in 1982 and in 1983 he joined the Little Abbey Theatre where he received formal art tuition for the first time. In 1986, the young artist was employed as a student teacher in screen printing at the Community Arts Workshop, located in the old station buildings in Durban.
Although he had always been actively engaged in community workshops, his career as an artist was bolstered in 1989 by his participation in the Thupelo Workshops initiated by David Koloane and Bill Ainslie in Johannesburg. Ka-Mkame refers to his involvement in the Workshops as 'milestones' that took his work to another level. His profession was further enhanced in 1988 when the South African National Gallery in Cape Town purchased his Letters to God drawing series for their permanent collection.
Shortly thereafter, the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg purchased the series Letters for my Child. The popular ‘letter’ series executed in his favoured medium of oil pastel colour layered to create texture and tone were created at the height of the instability of the apartheid era in South Africa and gave the young artist a swift high profile in South African art.
During the 1980’s, Ka-Mkame embarked on a new series illustrating the trials and tribulations of women, particularly African women. He openly acknowledges that his compassion and empathy for women stems from the love and admiration he had for his mother.
His latest series titled Virgins and Graces draws on his concept of African Women. Once again, the artist has made use of oil pastels and has utilised his subtractive technique to create bold yet exquisitely sensitive images by methodically and painstaking scratching into the dark top layer with a blade and working from dark to light. Delicately manipulated pattern and texture contrast brilliantly against the naturalistic skin colour of the woman.
In the series, titled Emancipation of the Virgins, Ka-Mkame has created images of women in rhythmical succession of movement in intense warm colours against a bold red and black background. The movement of the woman against the bold background conveys a feeling of emotional liberation and the intelligent use of monochromatic color in the figures, forces the viewer to recognize the major elements in the artwork. The bold use of red and black in the background suggests that Ka-Mkame has adopted symbolism through the use of colour.
Virgins and Graces runs until June 9 at the African Art Centre in Florida Road. For additional information contact the Director, Sharon Crampton, at 031 312 3805.
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