Painter, draftsman and artist Stephen Langa came to work in the David Krut Workshop once more, focusing on a body of artworks that are being sent to New York City. His prints are to be featured in David Krut Arts, NYC’s 2026 presentation at the Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair. The Pool Hall series began with Langa reintroducing watercolour monotype to his printing practice. The monotype prints featured in this blog, made in collaboration with Jesse Shepstone, are made with multiple layers of watercolour and oil-based monotypes.
Langa continues his thematic framework of creating scenes and images that involve and feel familiar to the black body, focusing first on the human presence in his compositions. Langa explores imagery of people in and around scenes of gambling and pool-playing for this series. For these prints it manifests in reimagined settings from his childhood and young adulthood.
His affection for these stories are seated in nostalgia while also allowing for the potential of fantasy. Langa remembers his father and uncles spending time together in these places, the bonding and building of relationships of people in his life. In addition to these recollections of reality, Langa also suggests something of a narrative nature, a couple experiencing a budding romance or people meeting for the first time.
Langa says these prints are not actually about gambling, but about the interaction between people and the environment. Langa wishes to navigate the historical, contextual relationship that black people have with spaces like the ones he depicts. He emphasises these environments are not a space only for gambling, but also a place that people can connect and speak.
When you look at my work, I want you to feel like you belong and [that you feel] you actually know the people close by.
Stephen Langa, 2026.
Langa hopes to “create universal works for people to be able to identify themselves” in, either as characters or in the emotional narrative. Langa deploys a narrative that does not have a specific story but allows for the viewer to attach meaning and experiences to the characters through their own memory and imagination.
The reintroduction of watercolour monotypes came about for Stephen as a means to create a series that felt different to his previous works with DKW and to challenge himself in a new medium. Langa decided to combine oil-based and watercolour monotypes to incorporate sensitive washes of the watercolour with the vibrant strength of the oil-based ink. While reflecting on this project, Langa expressed that his development in the workshop allows him to evolve his practice in his painting, pastel and charcoal work. Understanding and experimenting with techniques and textures allows for a learning curve that he can apply to his work.
Stephen Langa (b.1995 Limpopo) lives and works in Johannesburg. His practice includes oil painting, pastel and charcoal work that explores black, cultural experiences that interrogate his personal memory and pose questions to the viewer. He has worked with DKW printer Sbongiseni Khulu on a solo presentation Inceptions of Black Serenity (2024) and has featured in various art fairs attended by DKW: Latitudes 2025, Ink Miami (2025), Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair (2025). His work has been shown in a number of exhibitions across Johannesburg and New York: In Every Moment (2024), Man Made: A Group Show (2025), South African Artists New York (2025), Still Life: A Contemporary Arrangement (2025).
