Saatchi Yates is to present a solo exhibition of new paintings by emerging mixed-media artist Nokukhanya Langa, opening on Wednesday 14th September.
The exhibition delves into the world of modern media and internet culture while breaking the rules of traditional painting. Langa’s never-ending Hypnotic multi-coloured spirals and infinite gradients portray her interest in the loss of the image, and by extension, of reality.
Langa noting:
I see paintings as a laptop that has a lot of tabs open: one painting can be really quiet, or loud, or eccentric, and still all come together in one collection”. A playful reconfiguration of her own kaleidoscopic internal clutter, Langa’s work often features elements of childlike playfulness, personal histories, cultural undertones, allegories, fairy-tales, and tongue-in-cheek humour.
Born in Springland, Maryland, USA, and now based in Ghent, Belgium, Langa has grown up living between the United States, India, South Africa, The Netherlands, and Belgium. Her art practice reconciles the pluralities of her personal story, mixed cultural heritage, and lived experiences; all coming together to form part of her large-scale paintings, filled with vibrant imagery in a stream-of-consciousness style.
Unlearning the rigidity of her training in traditional oil painting, she plays with abstract motifs; colour, swirls, and other fluid shapes work in unison with more recognisable motifs like text and signs. Shifting back and forth between figuration and abstraction, the result is an agile use of approachable jargon and aesthetics that convey the more subtle, and incendiary subtext of the works in a kind of hallucinatory reality. This body of works builds on the selection presented at the Melly Museum in Rotterdam earlier in 2022.
Nokukhanya Langa, Saatchi Yates 14th September – 15th November 2022
About the artist
Nokukhanya Langa (1991) was born in Springland, Maryland, USA, and has grown up living between the United States, India, South Africa, the Netherlands, and is now currently based in Gent, Belgium. Langa’s art practice reconciles the pluralities of her personal story, and mixed cultural heritage, and lived experience. Her works are candied with abstract motifs such as colour, swirl and other fluid shapes, that work in unison with more figuratively recognizable motifs: text, and signs. Constantly shifting back and forth between figuration and abstraction, Langa’s work is never simply unambiguous, or determined. Her works, rather, become carriers through which private histories, political and cultural undertones, allegories, subversive narratives, and humour reveals themselves.
