Colbert Mashile
‘If one turns to Western practice Mashile’s graphic rendering of a simplified visual language marked by artificially contructed spaces, disproportion of form and flattened solid earthy colours bears some affiliation to the earlier work of Italian painter Georgio do Chirico…a precursor to the Surrealists.
He rediscovers and celebrates an ancient past, but remains thoroughly contemporary.’
- Virginia MacKenny
“I come from a place that is shrouded by powerful cultural norms and customs.”
These customs, such as the ritual of circumcision (which both he and his wife have undergone), informed his earliest work, and he sought refuge and healing through art.
Colbert Mashile has risen to prominence on both national and international level. His recent work is infused with the natural and mystical elements .In nearly every work, what emerges is a subtle tension between an invasive nature and a sense of serenity. It is this dichotomy that is so engaging.
This artist has an uncanny ability to “tune into” universal psychological archetypes in his work. These images are completely based in his African identity and yet they link up with the universal. His horned figures that loom over men, coffin-like vehicles and vast landscapes fill his prints. Mashile’s fine sense of colour compliments his forms, which seem to celebrate a connection to the earth. Mystical figures, phallic images, pods, huts and organic shapes are but some of the visual stimuli, which abound in Mashile’s recent work. The commentary on the relation of humans to the environment is unquestionable. Minuscule figures stand unobtrusively atop high structures surrounded by open fields. Some of the paintings depict a clear concern with masculinity. Horns dominate the structures, conveying male aggression.
Colbert Mashile was born in Bushbuckridge 1972, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa.
The Mechanics and Mysteries of Perception
Colbert Mashile: Experience and the Scar
Colbert Mashile - Act IX: Scene 1
Colbert Mashile: Recent Monoprints
