SING ABOUT ME
Themba Mwanza, BLVCK BLOCK’s latest residency graduate.
Titled “Sing About Me”, Mwanza’s series borrows its name from Kendrick Lamar’s song in the seminal “GOOD KID MAAD CITY”, exploring the grim realities that black youth face. “Sing About Me” marks the debut solo exhibition of Themba Mwanza against the backdrop of Number 4, a space initially serving as a men’s prison during Apartheid
Mwanza’s art is the communication between his present and younger self. It is rooted in the motivation to create art Mwanza envisioned as a child, incorporating a specific softness and playfulness from his youth. Mwanza takes every new creation as an opportunity to meet feelings of nostalgia and transmute those feelings into more than a product of memory and longing; instead, creating an experience of rebirth and escapism.
Mwanza debuted his first solo exhibition titled, “Sing About Me” on the 27th of July 2024 at Number 4, Constitution Hill.
Explore the exhibition below:
Mwanza’s oeuvre explores themes such as rebirth and escapism in the face of socio-political adversity. Mwanza”s paintings centre themselves around metaphors for freedom, peace and introspection, revealing him as a dreamer who uses his craft of oil painting to manifest and evoke freedom. Mwanza places his beloved subjects in unexpected, dreamlike environments, suspended in landscapes of peace and comfort, symbolising liberation to the artist.
Mwanza’s work serves a dual purpose: he explores the inner contemplations necessary to achieve peace while urging his audience to rethink sites that are relics of oppression. In doing so, one’s quest for serenity in a society once defined by racial segregation becomes a social endeavour at the service of greater harmony.