ARTIST WORKING:
Stephen Maqashela at work on the Lilian Ngoyi memorial, which he assembled in the backyard of his house in Alexandra, Johannesburg
PICTURE: © SUNDAY TIMES
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STEPHEN Maqashela hails from Alexandra, in Johannesburg, and is what he calls "a general artist". He trained in painting and ceramics at the original Alexandra Community Arts Centre, where he graduated in 1992. He is well known for his mosaics, especially recent works at Metro Mall in Newtown, Johannesburg. He has produced many collaborative large-scale murals and is highly regarded for his heroic portraits of people from Southern Africa.
Maqashela is based at the celebrated Bag Factory artists’ studios in Newtown, where he has been a resident artist since 1994. During a stay in the Thami Mnyele Foundation Studio in 1996, he participated in the Holland South Africa Line, an exchange between seven young artists from the Netherlands and South Africa.
In 2002, the world-renowned Senegalese singer, Baaba Maal, awarded him with a Greenpeace Certificate.
His works are housed in several public collections, including the South African National Gallery in Cape Town, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.
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