Notes

Mustafa Maluka’s vibrant paintings can be described as provocative portraits that aim to analyse contemporary culture and global politics. Drawing from his own past growing up in the Cape Flats, the artist uses his portraits to comment on the perception of minorities and immigrants, many of whom have been subjected to large-scale displacement and relocation. He strips his subjects of their origin and identity, representing them as transnational and racially ambiguous figures.

His invented heroes challenge traditional portraiture in multiple ways. He combines traditional modes of representation with street culture references to detach the image from its original context and charge it with an iconic personality. He references photographic images, particularly those with a direct and connecting gaze that he then transforms through his own distinctive and dynamic mark making, dense layers of paint, bold patterns and colour, and abstract, often geometric backgrounds.

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the current owner.

Exhibited

Galerie Mikael Andersen, Copenhagen, Denmark, Normative Positioning, 1 February to 10 March 2013.