Art Exhibit Opening. Tsholo Motong: Proud and Beautiful (Art House SF)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

Opening reception Sat, August 6, 4-8pm, Exhibit August 6 – September 30, 11am to 7pm Wed-Sat, 11-5 Sun

Tsholo “Splash” Motong from Soweto, South Africa, fuses design, art, and African spirituality in his work.

Soweto is home to more than 1.2 million black South Africans speaking Zulu, Xhosa, Sesotho, Setswana, Tshivenda, and many other local languages. Soweto was also in the middle of the struggle against the South African white-minority apartheid in the 1970s. The township has always influenced the country through politics, sports, music, and culture. It is also the only place in the world with two Nobel Prize winners: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

Local scenes from Soweto inspire Tsholo’s work.

Sometimes, his work is about the local entrepreneurs of Johannesburg (or “Jozi” as locals call it), street vendors with babies on their backs.

Sometimes, it is about local Kofifi jazz musicians who try to bring back their culture and music from the times before the apartheid regime.

Sometimes, he paints African healers and goddesses from the Zulu people of South Africa, who were called “witch doctors” by the Christian settlers.

Sometimes, it is the scenes in Soweto before local elections, with all the money thrown by the candidates to win over the locals.

But in addition to storytelling, Tsholo’s medium is so uniquely African. For many of his paintings, he collects unique African fabrics from different parts of Africa and then creates fabric collages from them. His colorful fabric mosaic tells us a story of the rich and colorful history of South Africa.

See Tsholo “Splash” Motong work in person at our opening reception on Saturday, August 6th.

You can also view our virtual exhibit:

https://www.arthousesf.com/pages/tsholo-motong-proud-and-beautiful-virtual-exhibition

Presented by Art House SF Gallery

Disclaimer: Please double check event information with the event organizer as events can be canceled, details can change after they are added to our calendar, and errors do occur.