Stephen Langa (b. 1995) is a South African Contemporary Artist from the Limpopo province. Langa currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Langa specializes in different mediums such as charcoal drawing, watercolour and oil paintings. He studied Art & Design at the Tshwane North College in Pretoria. Furthermore, he studied Printmaking at Artist Proof Studios (APS) which is a professional printmaking excellency. He was one of the top 3 artists of the IT web Brainstorm Art Calendar 2020 sponsored by HUAWEI and IOCO. He has also participated in group exhibitions and Art Fairs such as Johannesburg Art Fair, South African Print Art Fair, TLC student Lockdown collection of 2020 and Turbine Art Fair and 99 Loop Gallery group exhibition.
He is also part of the acquired artists by the Artbank of South Africa and is part of their collection. His body of work explores diverse stories and experiences of those around him and personal his journey of life. Inspired by the Impressionism art period from the 20th Century, he researches and explores ways to capture his emotions to fuel his work.
Artist Statement:
“The world is shaped by two things, stories told and memories they leave behind. Through my exploration of my preferred mediums, I am able to create humble striking works of art that are insightful of love, storytelling, societal influences that impacts our environments and questions around gender roles that has been inherited in our society.
My work seeks to create awareness of understanding the past that we have inherited from our forefathers, I highlight my experiences of my homeland and the city as visual detailed in my journey, experiencing life in both worlds with every scene that captures my interest. Trying to find ourselves through each and every piece that we create.
My charcoal lineworks and colours represents the mood of someone’s situation and current state of emotions and the unpredictable journey of life. Inspired by profound artist such as George Pemba, Claude Monet, Gerald Sekoto and Vincent Van Gogh, my charcoal lineworks and oil paintings have become pictorial visions that has a mesmerizing effect that is inspired directly by my emotive feelings that one can immediately identify and engage with the characters portrayed in such a way one would like to know them better in person.”
