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Navel Seakamela is a figurative painter exploring themes of self-representation and Black identity from the perspective of his own post-Apartheid generation.
Navel Seakamela was born in Soshanguve, Tshwane in 1991, and grew up in Tembisa township just outside Johannesburg. His subjects appear as silhouettes of ambiguous gender, with few details or distinguishing features other than their dark tonality and, very often, prominent red mouths. Although his large-scale paintings depict not so much the individual person as a sense of shared identity, the close framing of his subjects and emotive expression lend his portraits an intimacy and sense of vulnerability. Through his work, he addresses feelings of isolation, gender precepts and the psychological impact of consumerist culture.
Seakamela’s interest in art began at the Tembisa Art Centre, leading him to pursue more formal studies at Tshwane University of Technology. where he completed a diploma in visual arts in 2015. He was a finalist in the PPC Imaginarium Art Competition (2015) and the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards (2014) and apprenticed under Angus Taylor at the Dionysys Sculture Works in 2017.
Seakamela has participated in numerous local exhibitions since 2013, including Spring Awakening (2022) at Southern Guild; Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt, which was part of FNB Art Joburg’s Open City (2021); Divided Self at P72 Projects (2021); and shows at North West University Gallery in Potchefstroom, Tshwane University of Technology Gallery and the Pretoria Art Museum. He has shown his work at the FNB Joburg Art Fair and Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, and at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Southern Guild.
He has held solo exhibitions at Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg (2021), Nel Gallery in Cape Town (2021), Bonne Espérance in Paris (2022) and Southern Guild in Cape Town (2022). He was the inaugural artist in the GUILD Residency, during which he completed the body of work for his first solo with Southern Guild, Who We Should Not Be.
Navel Seakamela
Bloomy Day III, The Blooming Day Series, 2021Charcoal, acrylic, pastel on paper
49.63 x 39.38 in.
Navel Seakamela
Greener Circle II, Green Circle Series, 2021Charcoal, acrylic, pastel on paper
46 x 43.25 in.