• Village Hidden In The Sky

    A Village Hidden in the Sky lurks within African Spirituality. A people reside in a space that blend with nature in imperfect harmony, where things are lived but not explained, where love that was always shown but never said.
  • Spiritual Diversity

    In the deep forest lurks a sacred tree. A tree that keeps the African spirituality intact without forgetting the roots that stretch further than the branches could ever dream of, from soil that have a richer history that we can recall, dead seeds that make the soil more fertile than it was and foot prints that have more stories than we can imagine.
  • The Grand Entrance

  • The Traditional Communion

  • Intloko Yegusha

  • Imugi ne rugi

  • Surburban Traditional Initiates

  • Black Magic Lottery

  • Spiritual Cleansing In The Sacred Sea

  • The Climatic Initiation Arrival

  • Spiritual Chapters In the Kraal

  • The Initiate Off the Kraal The Initiate Off The Kraal

  • The Initiates vs The Monumental Economic Machine

  • Limited Levels Of Manhood

  • A Type Of Man Affected by the times

  • Looking Back To Look Forward. The Mystery of History.

  • The Agony Of Development

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0742816863

Kuyasakela@Gmail.com

Facebook: Kuyasa Kela

Modern Xhosa Aesthetics and The Stages Of Growth Of A Xhosa Male

My work include a series of drawings and paintings inspired by elements in Xhosa culture. The elements includes the village setting, clothing, African spirituality and how it blends with modern items to maintain itself. I incorporate realistic and surreal imagery that creates a dream like feel to ordinary scenes to reflect African spirituality that is included through stories that we share. It then narrowed down to a topic that is more personal and specific. The topic that revolves around the idea of Xhosa initiation process( Ulwaluko) and growth. These works then also referred to myself specifically so that I can relate the experiences that I have and then continued to incorporate surrealist elements so that the images can be more suggestive in the ways that it’s perceived.

The artworks aim to celebrate the ideas that are still remaining in Xhosa culture and how it assimilates itself to the spaces around it. It also aims to incorporate concepts expressed in Xhosa culture and the suggestions of the history that echoes through the circumstances that the Xhosa people around me have adapted to. It’s a take of the black experience through the eyes of a Xhosa male in multi racial post apartheid South Africa, whose also trying to assimilate his own culture in multiracial South Africa while trying to learn more about the culture. It’s a mixture of and intuitive and deliberate representation that aims to create visuals that begs to be analyzed and further the developing discourse of an up and coming artist and academic.

Artist Bio
Kuyasa Kela is a South African-born, emerging artist from East London based in Johannesburg. He is a Xhosa-speaking male. He has a strong passion for art and has been making art from an early age. He received a Bachelor’s Degree from The University of Fort Hare in 2017. He was a part-time tutor in Fort Hare. In 2018, he represented the gallery Art Versatile as an artist, where he produced a series of artworks based on a specific theme (The Heroes of The Eastern Cape). In 2019, he then took part in-group exhibitions at Ann Bryant art gallery and Florendale art gallery in East London. In 2021, he collaborated with the Sonwa Sakuba Institute of Performance and Dance and the Amaza sound journey on events. In the same year, he also took part in an Interview in Sunday Sessions with Gugu Phandle.
He specializes in drawing and painting but also works with digital arts and graphics design. He makes portraits (drawings and paintings) and introspective, vivid surrealist-inspired artworks (painting and digital art) that explore spiritual, social, and political themes. He also experimented with silkscreen printing where he printed his digital art on plain t-shirts.
In 2023, he moved to Johannesburg to further his education. He is currently doing his honours at the University of Witwatersrand.