Biography

Tshepo Mosopa is an Emerging South African Artist who was born in Pretoria in 2003. While still in high school, he participated in an Art Program presented by Pretoria Art Museum. Mosopa obtained a National Higher Certificate in Fine and Applied Arts from Tshwane University of Technology, majoring in Glass and Printmaking. He was accredited as an Education Assistant in 2008 through the Education Preparatory Programme from the Pretoria Art Museum (PAM), and had facilitated major projects in the Museum’s calendar as, The Children’s Tile Art Project, Educators Orientation Programme and the PAM Kidz Club. He was selected for the Sasol New Signatures Competition (2007 and 2008. In 2011 he took part in the Joburg Art Fringe under the Assemblage Exhibition presentation. His work has been exhibited at the Absa Art Gallery, for the Absa L’atelier Competition (2009).He exhibited in the For Sale Project Exhibition (Home coming) at the PAM and Rehearsal exhibition in 2008 at The Centurion Art Gallery. He was the first recipient of the Reinhold Cassirer Award in 2011 funded by Nadine Gordimer at the Bag Factory Artists Studio in Newtown, Johannesburg. Mosopa’s work is included in the Ellerman House Contemporary Art Collection, Bantry Bay, in Cape Town, and in other private collections. He is currently a Resident Artist at the Bag Factory Artist Studios practicing as a full time artist. ), In 2012 he participated in the FNB Joburg Art Fair and also took part in the Thupelo International Workshop which was held at the Bag Factory. In the same year Mosopas works were shown as the Bag Factory Artist’s Studios Celebrated its 21 years Retrospective, called BF21 Retrospective Exhibition, along with a selection of other full time Bag Factory resident Artists.

Artist Statement

"Conceptually I deal with issues of self-Identity through the notion of social hierarchy. The contextual frame within which I work investigates the social order in relation to location of the human form according to class and status from different ethnic groups. I use standards in society as a metaphor for the gap between the different hierarchies in modern South Africa by illustrating and emphasising the activities that cause or enhance the gap. The content of my work focuses on sociology; specifically focusing on how the placement of the human form is composed from real social observations and used to record and communicate societies psychological response to modern challenges in South Africa, Africa and the world.

My work is subject to figurative scenes which are presented on large scale formats, to encompass the viewer into the composition and extending the works significance by unifying different social statuses within one medium. These figurative scenes are activities which categorize the subject’s social ranking through themes such as; unemployment, crime, religion (believes and mythology), politics (tyranny and power), stereotyping ethnicity (race, culture, gender), etc. This challenges the viewer as their space is invaded by the mass of the work. I believe people respond and interpret images and objects differently according to their experience in life, and one experience in life helps them to better understand themselves, culturally and religiously. I approach drawing in contemporary manner by working on a specially prepared un-stretched canvas. I use basic mediums in my work such as drawing (charcoal and ink), printmaking, found objects and mixed media because they are accessible to me. Through this medium I use the human form and its placement in space, applying social issues relevant to my own experience and search for self-identity as a young African man, in order to represent, report and challenge a vast and unnecessary gap between rankings in society. "