Sichumile Adam (b. 2001) is an emerging South African visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who primarily works with acrylic paint and mixed medias. Adam,S has recently found interest in editorial and high fashion photography that captures and explores popular contemporary cultures amongst Black South African and African women. Adam,S draws archives from popular South African literature, DRUM magazine along with social media platforms as her primary source of research. Through her paintings Adam marrires popular African American imagery with South African contemporary cultures to create a landscape of familiarities of popular Black cultures and aesthetics amongst women across the Black diaspora .
Red 2023, acrylic paint on canvas 25cm x 30cm
Theres something very electric about Black women. There’s an essence that Black women exude and I see it everywhere, it’s in the way we dress, in the way we move, in the way we talk, in the way we move. WE ARE THE ART. There’s a magic that we carry and I want to explore it , I want to be consumed by it. Im falling inlove with Black women- Sichumile Adam
Londi x Mowalola large bundle bag 2023. acrylic paint, fabric and paper on canvas 53 cm x 60 cm
With these boldly coloured portraits, Adam,S looked to Black women on social media platforms for inspiration, with this she also focused on Black female Hip Hop and Rap artist, fashion designers and Black female led films like B.A.P.S (Black American Princesses) 1997. What caught Adam,S attention was the perfomativity of these women, the long nails, colourful wigs, bold prints and the sporting of (local/international ) designer items. There is something liberating about this performance and it has become accessible to anyone with the courage and confidence to participate in this act ,it has become a language that we consistently find ways to accentuate.
This attentiveness to black aesthetic made me: moved me from the windowstill to the world.
Christina Sharpe 2019, Beauty Is a Method
Fashion and Art are on the rise to becoming one of the biggest tools of self expression and community. Adam,S uses designer Dapper Dan as reference in which he in/famously ‘Africanised’ premium European brands making them his own and making it accessible to his people, along with Dan, Adam,S looks at contemporary artist Mickalene Thomas and her use of collage and photography simultaneously to prototype race and beauty expanding the representation of Black women.
Sexyy 2023 acrylic paint on canvas 51 cm x 60 cm
I think part of it is accepting that it’s so much beauty in being Black
And thats the thing that I guess I get emotional about because Ive always known that, I’ve always been proud to be Black. Never wanted to be nothing else, loved everything about it. Just it’s such beauty in Black people.
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