™Njabulo Hlope (b.1996)
South Africa
Mixed Media
Njabulo is an illustrator and visual artist currently based in Johannesburg
operating under the pseudonym Dirty Native Chief.
He would best describe his practice as storytelling rather than mere image-making and the stories in question are merely glimpses into the human experience.
Njabulo completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in visual communication at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography in the Western Cape where he conceptualized and created Studio Dirty Native.
Njabulo’s work can be seen as a response to observations about human life, and not only as a means to scrutinize and critique the human experience but rather a means to explore it and how he exists in relation to that particular experience as a young black cultural hybrid walking the contemporary landscape.
‘I Am Mr Sunshine aka. Mr Sensitive’ (2023) is part of a series of Artworks created by Njabulo Hlophe as a means of Therapeutic self-exploration. In this collection. Njabulo creates large colour fields that serve as landscapes for himself to address various aspects of his idea of self. He then overlays these colour fields with an abstracted self-portrait that is ultimately the face that each part of himself is addressed through collection.
He would best describe his practice as storytelling rather than mere image-making and the stories in question are merely glimpses into the human experience.
Njabulo completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in visual communication at the Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography in the Western Cape where he conceptualized and created Studio Dirty Native.
Njabulo’s work can be seen as a response to observations about human life, and not only as a means to scrutinize and critique the human experience but rather a means to explore it and how he exists in relation to that particular experience as a young black cultural hybrid walking the contemporary landscape.
‘I Am Mr Sunshine aka. Mr Sensitive’ (2023) is part of a series of Artworks created by Njabulo Hlophe as a means of Therapeutic self-exploration. In this collection. Njabulo creates large colour fields that serve as landscapes for himself to address various aspects of his idea of self. He then overlays these colour fields with an abstracted self-portrait that is ultimately the face that each part of himself is addressed through collection.
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2023 HeritageConcept, Afrinova. Basel, Switzerland
2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Special Projects: INDEX. Johannesburg, RSA
2022 Spirit Exhibition, The LAW. Zurich, Switzerland
2021 International Public Arts Festival. Salt River, Cape Town RSA
2021 Museum of Plastic Group Exhbition, Mural and 3D Virtual Exhibition. Cape Town, RSA
2019 Jaiva Wena Sneakerlab Artist Series Exhibition. Johannesburg, RSA
2023 RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Special Projects: INDEX. Johannesburg, RSA
2022 Spirit Exhibition, The LAW. Zurich, Switzerland
2021 International Public Arts Festival. Salt River, Cape Town RSA
2021 Museum of Plastic Group Exhbition, Mural and 3D Virtual Exhibition. Cape Town, RSA
2019 Jaiva Wena Sneakerlab Artist Series Exhibition. Johannesburg, RSA