Andrew Ntshabele

Andrew was born in the small rural town of Moruleng, SA. He was the first black student to be enrolled in an all white nursery school, where permission had to be granted from the government. Here he experienced the racial system of Apartheid in the early nineties.

As a young kid he witnessed the change of governments and South Africa’s first ever democratic elections in 1994 and the first black president Nelson Mandela, his hero! In primary school and High School his passion and love for the visual arts was already identified by his teachers and encouraged. He completed his National Diploma in Fine Arts in painting and drawing in 2012.

Since then he works as an independent artist in Doornfontein, Johannesburg. His work deals with the negative effects of rapid urbanisation in Johannesburg and the pressures and the strains of the people on a daily basis.

His powerful paintings are based on actual photographs he takes on his daily travels around the inner city of Johannesburg. He paints the daily life images with acrylic paint on collages of newspaper articles and sometimes the headings and articles relate to the image. His work is clearly a form of social commentary.