Artist Database

Mankebe Seakgoe (b. 1998) is a Johannesburg-based multidisciplinary artist born in Pietersburg, Limpopo. In 2019 she completed her BFA at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Her debut solo exhibition, This is not piano..., was presented by RESERVOIR in Cape Town (2026). In 2025, Seakgoe presented a solo booth with BKhz at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, titled The Invisible Man’s Herbarium. Recent group exhibitions include I keep coming back here, I don’t know why at Stevenson, Cape Town (2026); RMB Latitudes Art Fair with Stevenson (2026); The Poets Art Working at Southern Guild, Cape Town (2026); Experiment. Introduce. Enjoy at KwaLanga (2026); Investec Cape Town Art Fair with RESERVOIR (2026); The space between attempts at BKhz, Johannesburg (2025); A tropology between image & imagination for BMW Art Generation at Nirox Sculpture Park (2025); Feminine front by the Austrian Cultural Forum; autopoiesis at Blank Projects (2025); Chapter Two: Identity and Migration at PSM Gallery, Berlin (2025); Thresholds at Southern Guild, Cape Town (2025); Between us and the stars at BKhz (2025), RMB Latitudes Art Fair with RESERVOIR (2025); Fallow Ground, curated by RESERVOIR for Spaced Out at Gut Kerkow, Germany (2024) I Miss Myself The Most at Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg (2023); FULLHOUSE curated by FEDE at blank, Cape Town (2023); I Hear You, a two-person exhibition with Tzung-Hui Lauren Lee at BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg (2023); Brown Flesh Tales at Son of Langa Art Studio (2023); and INDEX 2023, curated by Nkhensani Mkhari at the RMB Latitudes Art Fair.

Her practice is a continuous exploration of language, emotion, and the nuanced spaces that exist between comprehension and feeling. Seakgoe’s work seeks to move beyond conventional communication, inviting audiences into a realm where affect and intuition take precedence over literal understanding.

Growing up in a multilingual household—speaking Sepedi, English and isiZulu—Seakgoe experienced language as both a tool and a barrier. This complex relationship with verbal expression led her to develop a personal “language of feeling and flow,” manifested through abstract calligraphy and text-based drawings. In these works, words are transformed into gestures, offering the viewer a
space to engage emotionally rather than analytically.

Her process, often likened to André Breton’s concept of “dictation of thought in the absence of all control,” is deeply intuitive. Beginning with meditation, Seakgoe allows her ideas to surface freely, often translating them into charcoal works, canvas compositions, or sculptural forms. This approach underlines her belief in art as a tool for deeper understanding—both of the self and of shared human experience, seeking ever more profound ways to communicate the inexpressible.