August 22, 2025, marked the official opening of the highly-anticipated RMA Young Artists Project (YAP) at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban. This groundbreaking project, conceived in 2002, serves as an institutional platform for experimental art practice. It provides emerging artists with financial and curatorial support, as well as the space to realize their first solo projects.
The KZNSA is proud to present two solo exhibitions: Seeking by N’lamwai Chithambo and Disgust, Fear and Hell by Zama Cebsile Mwandla.
(Left: Zama Cebsile Mwandla. Pic supplied)
Zama Cebsile Mwandla
Zama Cebsile Mwandla, who will be exhibiting her solo titled Disgust, Fear and Hell, is a Pietermaritzburg-based visual artist and a WITS University graduate. Her work addresses the quiet, often unspoken aftermath of sexual violence.
Drawing deeply from personal experience, she explores how trauma lingers shaping memory, behaviour, and identity through patterns such as addiction, impulsivity, and mental illness.
Her primary tools are oil and acrylic, which she uses to create
emotionally-charged scenes blending fine detail with raw, textured backgrounds.
At the heart of her imagery are surreal, hybrid creatures - part self, part
myth - standing in for emotions too complex for words. These figures embody
both pain and divinity, becoming symbols of survival, fragility, and
transformation.
Inspired by mythology, religion, and the strange logic of dreams, Mwandla’s practice moves fluidly between reality and imagination. Recently, she has begun exploring sculpture and textile work, using touch and materiality to express how the body remembers what the mind tries to forget. Rather than offering resolution, her work insists on confronting discomfort and bearing witness to pain. It invites viewers into a space where silence is broken and survival is honoured. Her work has been exhibited throughout South Africa and Europe and is held in collections across the world.
N’lamwai Luntha Chithambo, who will be exhibiting his solo titled Seeking, was born in 1997 in Edinburgh,
Scotland. A multidisciplinary artist, Chithambo explores the intersections of
identity, migration, and spirituality through oil painting, digital art, and
illustration.
Born to Malawian parents and raised in South Africa, his practice is deeply informed by his transnational upbringing. He examines themes of African consciousness, youth identity, and autobiographical narrative.
Chithambo holds both a Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts from Rhodes University, graduating with distinction in Fine Art Practice.
His work merges portraiture, African comic aesthetics, and religious symbolism to create layered storytelling. Recently, he has pushed into digital art, seeking to bridge traditional oil painting techniques with contemporary digital mediums. Figures are often depicted in transition - half-real, half-symbolic - reflecting shifting identities. Community is conveyed through repeated depictions of collective bodies and shared gestures, highlighting both the continuity and fragmentation of diasporic experiences. Surreal or cosmic backdrops suggest the tension between reality and imagined freedom.
Symbols in his work carry layered meanings: birds often represent freedom, escape, or spiritual elevation; hands frequently isolated or exaggerated suggest power, creation, or communication. Masks hint at identity concealment or performance, referencing both protection and the pressures of assimilation. His use of blue evokes calm, while warm earth tones lend a sense of comfort and intimacy.
Recurrent themes of stars and planets link subjects to time and lineage, reframing Black existence beyond historical constraints. Animals, especially in unexpected poses, may symbolize instinct or resistance. Overall, Chithambo uses symbolic imagery and carefully chosen color palettes to reconstruct Black identity as fluid, sacred, and expansive.
The KZNSA hosted a Panel Discussion with Storm
Janse van Rensburg on Sunday, August 24, 2025.
Storm Janse van Rensburg initiated the Young Artists Project in 2002 during his tenure as Curator at the KZNSA. The project was conceived as an annual initiative aimed at nurturing a next generation of artists by introducing an experimental component to the gallery’s exhibition programme.
The KZNSA Gallery is situated at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, in Durban. More information on 031 277 1705 or cell 082 220 0368 or visit www.kznsagallery.co.za
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