Artist Database

Thero Makepe is a multimedia artist born and raised in Gaborone, Botswana. He completed his Bachelor of Fine Art with distinction at the University of Cape Town, majoring in photography. Currently focused on photography, the artist employs the moving image as an aesthetic vehicle through which he examines familial, social, and geopolitical histories. Within this framework, Makepe engages historic events to explore the liminal spaces between collective and personal memory, foregrounded by his own lyrical and spiritual sensibilities. In 2023, he was the recipient of the MEP residency – Gervanne Collection + Matthias Leridon – Cité internationale des arts (Paris, France). In 2022, Makepe was selected for the Invisible Borders Trans-African Road Trip: Whispers of the Wilderness, which took place in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, Angola and Namibia. In 2020, he was awarded the Diane and Charles Frankel Fellowship (USA, South Africa) and was selected as a finalist for Blurring the Lines at Paris College of Art (France). In 2019, the artist was awarded the Tierney Fellowship. In the same year, Makepe co-founded The Botswana Pavillion, which is dedicated to developing Botswana’s artistic archive, making it a prominent force in the international art space. In 2021, Hans Ulricht Obrist and András Szántó commissioned The Botswana Pavillion as a part of the Unfinished Camp project. Makepe currently lives and works between Gaborone, Cape Town, and Johannesburg.

Image courtesy of Latitudes Online.