The collaboration sees South Africa’s Karabo Poppy and three other artists creating the official illustrations for a book that showcases some of our continent’s most influential women.

Leadhers: Life Lessons From African Women is a collection of inspiring stories and life advice shared by 19 women who’re breaking through glass ceilings across a wide variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, politics, education and business.

The book is available for free in digital and print formats – it’s geared to uplift future leaders. Each beautifully curated chapter shares personal stories of overcoming challenges and the various paths you can take to achieve your idea of success. Leadhers: Life Lessons From African Women is brought to life with a series of illustrations by women artists from across the continent. You can expect to see artworks created by Massira Keita from Côte d’Ivoire, Lulu Kitololo from Kenya, Karabo Poppy  from South Africa, and Awele Emili  from Nigeria.

5 000 Copies will be printed and available at Facebook’s local training partners in 15 countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Senegal and Kenya.

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The winning print, entitled The Populist, is inspired in part by Desiderius Pongrácz, who revolutionised South African viticulture by challenging and changing the status quo through his visionary ideas.

The design is also inspired by postal art/correspondence art, a popular artistic movement that focused on sending small-scale artworks via the postal service.

Sir Abner designed a code – EOIC 3ULD – which, when folded upwards, translates to BOLD, reflecting the pioneering spirit of Desiderius Pongrácz.

Sir Abner transformed the military camouflage print that symbolises camaraderie and bravery, into black and white, and infused the design with the Shangaan Bag, which represents hope, courage and optimism.

In keeping with Sir Abner’s extraordinary ability to weave ideas, design, fashion and culture into a single vision, the 2020 Bold Print of the Year makes an original statement.

Visit pongracz.co.za or follow @pongracz_sa on Instagram to find out more.

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Joburg-based artist and designer Seboni Abner Makgamatha, aka Sir Abner, gives us some insight into his design ideas, including a recent collaboration with bubbly brand Pongrácz.

Tell us about your design journey.

I grew up in Mamelodi, and studied in Pretoria after school. My formal background is in graphic design and multimedia. I got into retail because I wanted to work in fashion; I just didn’t quite know what I wanted to do. I always saw fashion as a way of mashing everything together. It was the Zeitgeist of the art world, where things meet and make sense – you can always synthesise and weave ideas, and create something new.

You’re big on collaboration – why is it so important for design?

Collaboration is what got us to an era that I like to call post-post-modern, where niche and individuality are really becoming the theme. We can be so different – and we can collaborate on a project but still have individual voices of equal strength, for a bigger, sustainable cause. Because of collaboration, the world has become small. I could be working with anyone in the world, interacting not just with their work but with their culture, how they live, their points of view. It allows us to be open-minded.

You recently worked with the Pongrácz brand. What was your brief for the collab?

The brand liked my black-and-white aesthetic – I’m usually dressed in black or white, or a combo, because I don’t want to dictate what people should buy through my sartorial choices. Pongrácz has a feature within the brand that is a black-and-white stripe – and they wanted to see what I’d come up with using this small element of design.

Your Insta bio says “AntiFashion”. What does that mean?

When I think of fashion, I think of a mannerism. Fashion gives you a style, but fashion never really changes. Its styles, however, are always changing and evolving. My responsibility is to show other people what this can mean. I don’t favour a certain fashion, but I welcome styles. Everything is fluid, and it expands beyond clothes. It goes beyond sustainability, which relates to social impact. Inclusive fashion is also a thing. Who is modelling your clothes? This is all “AntiFashion” – using it as a tool to drive something bigger than yourself.

For more information about the collab, visit pongracz.co.za and follow @sir.abner on Instagram. Enter our competition and you could stand a chance to win a limited-edition lounger in Sir Abner’s winning Bold Print of the Year.

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Local textile and homeware brand Skinny laMinx and jewellery design studio Pichulik have joined forces on a new textile collaboration.

The collaboration forms part of Pichulik’s new Spring/Summer 2020 PLENTY collection, which includes a range of new designs from the jewellery brand.

Katherine-Mary Pichulik and Heather Moore of Skinny laMinx researched the Tropicalia movement of Brazil, from art and sculpture to colour and design. The team used these inspirational elements to reimagine Skinny laMinx’s Roof Garden print, making it adaptable to garments designed by Nadya von Stein.

“In its original form as a furnishing fabric, Roof Garden is a three-colour screenprint, inspired by the shapes and shadows of plants on the Skinny laMinx rooftop garden,” explains Heather. “Removing one of the screens emphasises the abstract qualities of the shadows and shapes, and adds more space to the print, giving a fresh twist to an existing design.”

The textile collaboration is currently available exclusively at the Skinny laMinx store at 201 Bree Street, Cape Town and will be available on Pichulik’s website towards the end of November. For more information and to shop online, visit skinnylaminx.com and pichulik.com.

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Wits Art Museum is currently hosting a retrospective exhibition, curated by Boitumelo Tlhoaele, that highlights the extensive body of print work created by iconic South African artist Sam Nhlengethwa.

With jazz as an underlying theme, the exhibition, entitled Leeto: A Sam Nhlengethwa Print Retrospective, focuses on work created between 1978 and 2018.

We caught up with the renowned artist to find out how his journey began, what he loves most about printmaking and how jazz has inspired his work.

How did your artistic journey first begin?

I can trace my artistic journey back to when I was at primary [school] in Ratanda Location in Heidelberg where I grew up. I used to illustrate my classmates’ books.

Your new exhibition at Wits Art Museum celebrates your work since 1978. Is there a highlight from your career that stands out for you most?

It has been a leeto, a journey, indeed. I have enjoyed working and experimenting with different types of prints. I did printmaking in Rorke’s Drift, but it took a back seat when I started doing collage. As the winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award in 1994, I had to prepare a new body of work. I decided then to exhibit different types of media under the theme of jazz. Prints were part of the media I exhibited. I worked with Mark Atwood of The Artists’ Press on lithographs. Since then I have enjoyed the process of lithography and have ventured into other types of prints too.

The underlying theme of the exhibition is jazz. How has jazz inspired your work over the years?

I grew up around a brother that listened to jazz – my late brother Rankie was a jazz musician. I always play jazz in my studio while working and at home when entertaining friends or just chilling. Jazz simply inspires me. It’s my chill pill. The sound of jazz just pumps my creative juices, which then get translated onto the canvas.

Then take the first solo (2012)

As mentioned on The Artists’ Press website, your work often deals with the movement of people, paying homage to people and places. Why is this important to you?

I paint what I like. I paint what I see around me. To me, interaction with one’s surroundings is important. I connect with my surroundings and they impact what I produce. I live in Johannesburg. It is a vibrant city. Every day there are gems to feed the eyes. It deserves to be appreciated and documented.

You’ve created 163 prints with The Artists’ Press. What do you love most about printmaking?

I particularly like lithography. The process is laborious but fulfilling. I begin by making an original artwork, mostly in collage. I bring together different pieces to make one piece. During the printmaking process, I kind of “dismember” the piece through different colour plates. In the end, I put the colours on the plates together and reproduce the image.

Precisely my point (2012)

What advice would you give to emerging artists?

Be patient. Focus. Experiment with different media and themes. Stay disciplined.

Leeto: A Sam Nhlengethwa Print Retrospective at Wits Art Museum runs until 17 August 2019. For more information, visit wits.ac.za/wam.

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While colour is often the best way of bringing life into a space, it can be a daunting task for most people. You may love green, but painting a whole wall in the colour can be pretty scary, even for the most outlandish of interior designers. First and foremost, the colour needs to be right for the space.

Tip #1: Start By Choosing a Contained, Small Space

This won’t be your main bedroom or dining room. Think smaller. Think guest bathroom. It’s the perfect place for your first foray into colour experimentation because even if you don’t get it spot on, it’s small enough to adjust and play around with. The guest bathroom is also the ideal spot in the house where people are willing to take the most risk when it comes to decor. Give your guests something to talk about even if the decor is completely different to the rest of the house.

Tip #2: Choose a Colour You Love, Not One That is Trending

Luckily, when a colour starts to trend, it does so with a couple of other ones at its side. I for one, cannot live with red in my life. But along with the red trend, are exciting tones of fuchsia and pink. Choose colours that you know will not cause you to commit grievous bodily harm to the people around you, but rather will have you swooning every time you walk into a room.

Tip #3: Go Bold

In a world of so much sameness and mass production, why wouldn’t you choose something that makes a statement about who you are? Colour and pattern is the perfect way to do this. It sets you apart from everyone else and makes your home just that… your home. This can be done by finding a paint colour that speaks to you or by choosing a bold wallpaper design this is either custom designed to suit your space or says something about what you love – think the East, bold botanicals or birdlife. Why not take a real leap and combine colour and pattern? Now we’re talking.

Tip #4: Colour as a Mood

Think of colour as your mouthpiece when you’re not around. What do you want a space to say? Should it say opulence, fun, moody, eccentric? When it comes to opulence, think purple; fun, think yellow; moody, think charcoal; and eccentric… any colour other than grey will work. Colour helps you create emotion and moods in a way that nothing else can.

Tip #5: Nature is a Colour

It amazes me how much better almost every space looks when you add a touch of nature to it in the form of plants. There is no space that cannot be enhanced with a gorgeous fiddle-leaf fig, hanging fern or a little sprig of something in a vase. If your space looks like it’s lacking in something, the chances are it’s a plant.

This article is brought to you by Pongrácz, which has released a beautiful, on-trend purple-hued bottle in the form of Pongrácz Noble Nectar, available in selected liquor stores and online. 

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The winner of the Nando’s Hot Young Designer Talent Search for 2018 has been announced.

Selected from a group of 10 talented finalists, who themselves were chosen from 420 pattern design entries, Agrippa Mncedisi Hlophe took home this year’s title.

Agrippa Mncedisi Hlophe

Agrippa, who hails from Port Shepstone, designed a flowing pattern that represents continuity. “That’s why I went for circles,” he says in this clip about the 2018 finalists. “It’s a universal shape, and it represents unity and continuity. In life we all go through problems, and we go through rough patches where we’re forced to take difficult curves, where we fall and rise again, but when we rise, we rise with more knowledge and stronger hearts and minds.”

Agrippa Mncedisi Hlophe’s winning pattern design

Agrippa was announced as the winner of this year’s Talent Search at Keyes Art Mile in Joburg, which featured a magnificent installation of suspended chairs designed by Tracy Lynch of Studio Lee Lynch, all featuring the patterns designed by the finalists.

The designs were also translated onto lamp shades, which are displayed in the window of Juta Street store Anatomy, an installation also designed by Tracy.

Follow Nando’s Hot Young Designer on Instagram to keep up to date with more news.

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Anthony Burrill is a UK-based graphic artist, printmaker and designer whose work forms part of the permanent collections of London’s prestigious Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

His typographic work, which includes the famous “Work Hard and Be Nice to People” takes centre stage in this beautifully shot video by Max Smith.

Commissioned by the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, the video shows the making of a large letterpress print using a vintage steamroller.

View more of Anthony’s work at anthonyburrill.com.

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Rose Gelderblom talks to VISI about growing up as a South African woman, social media, Palestine, art and what inspires her.

How did you get into art?

I am fortunate to have been born into a family of practising artists. My grandparents were artists living in the Eastern Cape and my great-grandparents were art educators on the South African-Namibian border. My great uncle has a home in Parys called ‘Gelderland’ that is a living archive of Gelderblom family art.

I grew up in Cape Town in the ’90s where struggle artists and political art was abundant. I was fortunate to be exposed to great thinkers and makers, through my parents, who have throughout my career encouraged my self-expression and creative processes.

From around age 16 I began to realise that I can convey a meaning a lot more effectively through an image than what I can through spoken word. My art career has developed as an alternative to my voice. Through art I can express my sensitivity in a way that I struggle to in conversation.

I studied art at university level, a choice that I often question. I think that my work as a means of self-expression is so deeply personal that the art-academic environment was a very violent space within which to develop my art.

What inspires you?

I draw inspiration from my daily encounters. I am a South African woman and I am deeply inspired by the stories of the women of this country, and women who are advocating for social justice around the world. I have spent the last year creating work after a residency in Palestine in June 2015. I have had the great privilege of working alongside the Palestine Museum and the Institute for Palestine and South Africa in the last year.

I am inspired by the individual, as well as the crowd. I am interested in the ways that people find unity and voice through growing numbers, rallying support and the sharing of ideas. Having grown up in Cape Town I draw a lot of inspiration from the people, plants and landscapes that I am exposed to in this place. I am deeply in awe of fynbos, of the intelligent design that allows these plants to exist – and continue to exist – in the Western Cape.

Finally, I draw inspiration from the people around me. I have been exposed to many truly brilliant people in my life. I am inspired mostly by the stories that people tell, and more specifically the stories people tell when they don’t think that anyone is listening.

How would you describe your style?

I am a painter who has been trained in the field of print media. At this point in time, my work is subverting the boundaries of traditional art practise. I am exploring performance, sound and installation, as well as my two dimensional work. My work is graphic and bold, yet generally not representational. I am interested in making art that gives the viewer space to interpret the work as they like. I do not like to make work that is prescriptive in terms of interpretation.

I make work that uses colour, amongst other things, to convey a sensation rather than attempting to create a representational image. I use monotonous and labour intensive techniques to create works that are hopefully beautiful and allow as much room for the viewer to draw the meaning that they seek from the work without having to consider my intention. Essentially, I attempt to open as much space as possible for viewer engagement.

Repetition, repetition, repetition.

Who are some of your favourite local artists?

I really enjoy the work coming out of the iQhiya collective, as well as work from Jody Paulsen, Morné Visage, Fela Gucci (FAKA), Desire Marea (FAKA), Paul Edmunds, Hylton Nel, Esther Mahlangu, Louise Gelderblom, Sitaara Stodel and Bonolo Kavula, who always has my heart.

Do you have a favourite piece of your own?

I am very attached to the small collages that have come out of my Palestinian research. Generally speaking I love and respect the work that I am able to produce. I produce prolifically, and I feel a strong sense of myself within every piece of art that I put out into the world.

At the moment I am busy working on a project where I translate South African struggle music into Arabic and circulate the songs within the Palestinian resistance movements.

Do you have any exciting plans for the future?

At the moment I am very excited about Performance, Engagement, a manifesto of seven performance artworks that I am working on in collaboration with my partner Adam Jon Williams. I am participating in some exciting exhibitions in the coming months with artists who I really care for and respect. I am in the process of taking occupation of a sponsorship studio space at Swain’s Yard studios under the guidance of Paul Birchall, one of Cape Town’s great painters. In the very near future I am building my first large-scale land artwork in Wellington in the Western Cape. Mostly, I am excited about having a Skattie Celebrates in Autumn of this year and the opening of the Palestine Museum in Cape Town, a project that is very close to my heart.

Where can people get their hands on your work?

My e-mail address is rosegelderblom@gmail.com, otherwise through Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr.

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We had a quick chat with Bela Bela-born, Pretoria-based artist Kobus Rossouw about his work.

You’ve been creating art for a few years now. When did your artistic career begin?

At 11 I started taking art lessons and was fortunate enough to have two or three people who mentored me, such as the then chairman of the Watercolour Society of South Africa, Jancke-Christoff Combrinck, who was technically amazing, a puritan about art and classical in his approach. That gave me the right foundation for the rest of my life.

You haven’t had the opportunity to be a full-time artist, and currently run a print factory and design agency. How did your first show come about?

After art school [secondary education] I got into business, but the idea was always to make money and then find time to do my art. Eventually, I decided it was time for my first solo exhibition in 2011.

Read more about his artwork at sculptor and furniture designer Dahla Hulme’s booth at 100 % Design South Africa on page 166 of the latest issue of VISI (VISI 81).

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