Nthabiseng Kekana’s return to the David Krut Workshop began by spending a few days at the end of September 2025 exploring oil-based monotypes again and navigating watercolour monotypes for the first time. Kekana was interested in adding a collage-like element to her prints and started incorporating pieces of Kitakata (a thin Japanese paper) through Chine Colle (a process of adhering thinner papers to a backing sheet during the printing process).
Kekana’s own spiritual and cultural life has developed in many ways since her first visit in 2024. She is now a healer and initiated sangoma in different mediums and elements, something that she displayed in her presentation at the FNB Art Fair: Sankofa: A Call for Remembrance is a body of paintings, mixed media pieces including textiles, sculpture and performance that all follow Kekana’s ritual of making. Kekana says: “There is so much intentionality that goes into creating each piece, it’s a ritual and a prayer to call it”.
The feminine and the spiritual are two pillars that Kekana’s practice and subject matter are built on. The exploration of these two themes come from Kekana’s personal relationship with both, the strong bond she shares with her mother and the role that spirituality has played in her heritage. Kekana says her work “explores the human Journey, past and present, encompassing themes of Spirituality, Mythology, Identity, African folktales, and the feminine image and it is through my daily experiences I seek to evoke deep reflection and nakedness of truth via painting [and] drawing” (Undiscovered Canvas 2023:Biography).
As her spiritual life has changed and grown, Kekana’s practice has shifted and developed too, introducing abstraction and Chine Colle are some changes that set this body of monotypes apart from her first set. “The works have always been fluid but now the fluidity has expanded into abstraction. I am now living in alignment which also translates within the works”, Kekana says, “There was an ease as I got comfortable with playing with the paper and the layering”.
Kekana explains that her mark making and method of working in monotype is more fluid than working with the textiles in her conventional practice: the oil and watercolour medium requires less predetermined planning than when she sews and places the textiles in her studio. Kekana began using the Kitakata as a bridge between her studio practice and her prints, treating it in a similar way to how she works with textiles in her studio. Kekana was able to translate her visual language into oil and watercolour monotypes even though she felt that they became more minimalistic through the ease of using mediums.
Chine Colle is a process that involves gluing thinner papers and running them through the press in-between the matrix and the backing paper to allow the printed marks to be transferred onto both the thinner paper and the backing paper while simultaneously being adhered to the backing sheet. Kekana started exploring the use of Kitakata in her prints by tearing pieces into the shapes of features that she wished to accentuate and highlight but also to create atmosphere and place figures in space. Kekana was able to pivot between mediums and navigate the challenges that oil and watercolour monotypes present with ease and a maturity that resonates throughout her practice. Her mark making and style shines through both mediums and has made a body that feels cohesive despite having contrasting processes.
Kekana’s work has been exhibited in France and England-where David Krut took an interest in her works on a show presented by Undiscovered Canvas in 2023. Nthabiseng Kekana first collaborated with David Krut Workshop in 2024 with Roxy Kaczmarek where they focused on oil-based monotypes and two etching plates. David Krut Arts has presented her work at group shows in both Johannesburg and New York, Latitudes Art Fair (2024) and Brooklyn Art Fair (2025).