STEPHEN MAQASHELA (b. 1966)
Space Miners
year unknown
mixed media
130 x 81 x 2 cm approximate
BIOGRAPHY
Stephen Maqashela was born in Motlakeng, Randfontein and grew up in Alexandra township. He trained in painting and ceramics at the original Alexandra Community Arts Centre, where he graduated in 1992.
He is well known for his mosaics, which include works at Metro Mall in Newtown, Johannesburg. He has produced many collaborative large-scale murals and is highly regarded for his heroic portraits of people from Southern Africa.
Maqashela was a resident artist at the celebrated Bag Factory artists’ studios in Newtown for several years from 1994.
During a stay in the Thami Mnyele Foundation Studio in 1996, he participated in the Holland South Africa Line, an exchange between seven young artists from the Netherlands and South Africa.
In 2002, the world-renowned Senegalese singer Baaba Maal awarded him with a Greenpeace Certificate.
His works are housed in several public collections, including the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.