Working primarily in acrylic on board, Sapeta explores South
African socio-political issues, which he says he cannot ignore every time
he turns on the TV, opens his front door or walks the streets. Dominated
by urban imagery, Sapeta's paintings explore issues of sexual and moral
corruption, as well as electricity theft. He has had five solo exhibitions
and has been part of numerous group shows in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo,
Nigeria, Benin, Mali, Switzerland and London. In 2002 he was invited to
represent South Africa in the fourth biennale of the Pan-Africa Circle of
Artists (PACA) held in Lagos, Nigeria. Sapeta also developed the concept
for the Raymond Mhlaba Memorial at Port Elizabeth's Red Location Museum.
Recently installed, this is a floor mosaic depicting scenes from the
anti-apartheid "1952 Defiance Campaign". Mxolisi Sapeta, who has lectured
drawing and painting at the Port Elizabeth College for six years, had his
first solo Bell-Roberts exhibition - Detached - in 2007. Also a published
poet, Sapeta lives and works in Port Elizabeth.
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