David Koloane

David Koloane (b. (1938 – 2019) was an influential artist, writer, arts administrator, and curator, recognized as a pioneering Black modernist painter during South Africa’s apartheid era. He made a significant impact on contemporary South African art. Koloane’s expressive and poetic works explore socio-political themes and the human condition, with Johannesburg serving as his central focus. His depictions of the city feature vibrant images of urban landscapes, townships, street scenes, jazz musicians, traffic congestion, migration, refugees, dogs, and birds. Using painting, drawing, assemblage, printmaking, and mixed media, Koloane presents scenes that blend exuberance and melancholy, clarity and ambiguity, creating rich pictorial narratives.

David Koloane (b. 1938 - 2019) was an artist, writer, arts administrator and curator as well as one of the pioneering Black modernist painters during the South African apartheid era and played a huge role in contemporary South African art. He was born in Alexandra, Johannesburg, and studied art at the Bill Ainslie Studios in Johannesburg, which later became the Johannesburg Art Foundation, and later completed a Diploma in Museum Studies at the University of London. Koloane spent his career making the world a more hospitable place for black artists during and after apartheid. He was a co-founder of the Thupelo workshop program and the Fordsburg Artists’ Studios, famously known as ‘The Bag Factory’ where he served as director for many years. In 1997 was appointed a member of the National Arts Council of South Africa. He was the curator of a number of international group shows and his works have featured in major exhibitions including the Venice Biennale. In 1998, he was the recipient of the prestigious Prince Claus Fund Award. David Koloane’s work reflects the socio-political landscape of South Africa, both past and present. Through his expressive, evocative and poetic artwork, Koloane interrogated the socio-political and existential human condition, using Johannesburg as his primary subject matter. Koloane’s representations of Johannesburg are populated with images of cityscapes, townships, street life, jazz musicians, traffic jams, migration, refugees, dogs, and birds among others. Imaginatively treated, through the medium of painting, drawing, assemblage, printmaking and mixed media, Koloane’s scenes are a blend of exuberant and sombre, discernible and opaque pictorial narratives. He passed away in 2019. David Koloane was the subject of TAXI-006 David Koloane from the TAXI Art Book series published by David Krut Publishing. In 2008, David Krut Projects (DKP) Cape Town displayed a number of monotypes and other prints by Koloane in a solo exhibition. In 2009, Koloane collaborated with the David Krut Workshop (DKW) to produce the body of work Wings of Freedom. In 2014, Koloane was commissioned to produce a work for the group exhibition The Benediction of Shade II in November 2014, Fantasy III

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