Each year young designers and fresh graduates from across South Africa are welcomed to apply for Design Indaba’s Emerging Creatives programme which is run in partnership with the government’s Department of Arts and Culture. Forty of the best entrants are shortlisted, get a chance to exhibit their work at the festival and attend the conference. Here are two of the artists we met while in Cape Town last month.

SONWABO VALASHIYA

“My aim is to tell stories of where I come from and to influence the word into realising the true authentic beauty that is Africa,” says illustrator Valashiya who is part Xhosa, part Sotho.

One of Valashiya’s striking bodies of work is titled Imbokodo, which means rock in Swahili. This is a series of portraits of prolific African women such as anti-apartheid activist Lillian Ngoyi, singer-songwriter Amanda Black and news reader/ humanitarian Noxolo Grootboom among others.

Valashiya’s work is currently on view at his first extensive solo show called Imbeleko Thari: Story of a Black Village Kid in at Mthubi the hub in Pretoria.

MASONWABE NTLOKO 

Like Valashiya, Ntloko is Xhosa and his identity is very much woven into his work and online presence. He calls himself The 21st Century Black Man on Instagram, picking provocative themes for some of his bodies of work; like the lack of education around abortion. A series around this theme was designed to spark a conversation about what he calls the South African government’s inability to crack down on illegal abortion centres.

Title: LOST SOULS S1E5 Medium: Pen On Paper>Digital Painting Maybe I am the only one who has a problem with how the government seems to not pay attention to the advertising of illegal abortion institutions. All I want is for us to have a dialogue about this and get the government involved I am neither for nor am I against abortion its not my part to decide if its wrong or right but people need to be educated about matters like this

A post shared by Masonwabe Ntloko (@the21stcenturyblackman) on Mar 6, 2018 at 2:09am PST

He works a lot of with photography and self portraiture, placing himself within whimsical narratives. Ntloko says his objective is to educate his contemporaries about their culture and encourage them to embrace their roots.

“The main reason we as the youth don’t know much about our culture is the way it’s being taught to us, so I came up with a way to teach my peers in a way they will understand, through art and social media.”

Ntloko has gone back to study, to the Nelson Mandela university, where he is now working towards a degree in textile designing and technology

 @sonwabovalashiya; @the21stcenturyblackman