The Johannesburg-based artist uses both digital and traditional platforms for her striking portraits, which stand for empowerment and aim to encourage Black women to embrace self-love, self-confidence, and self-care.
00:00The phrase black is beautiful is no cliche when it comes to this artist's
00:05work. How is she honoring black womanhood through her distinct artwork?
00:10I want to express blackness, womanhood in a way that is very joyous and colorful
00:17and bold. I want women to be able to see themselves and fall in love
00:23with themselves and find peace in my pieces and find it's almost like therapy.
00:29I think I want it to be a safe place and not be reminded of everything happening
00:36around us but be reminded of the beauty within.
00:3926-year-old Naledi Mudupi seamlessly transitions between digital and
00:44traditional art. Which does she find herself drawn to more?
00:49I find it amazing that I could literally create 10 pieces today and put it out and
00:56that can reach 10 people or more. Whereas with traditional art it takes forever.
01:02You need to invest in it and the audience isn't as big as it would be with digital art.
01:09So they both carry their own thing. I love that about traditional art. I love the
01:15how careful I need to be or how intentional I need to be, how I need to actually plan this thing.
01:20Because so much goes into it and how I need to put it out.
01:29Her art has appeared on everything from t-shirts to homewear and beyond.
01:34With that in mind, does it remain art or has it crossed into the realm of decoration?
01:39Well, my style is abstract figurative, but I want it to be decorative art. I think I always aim for my art to be made to make places pretty or things pretty.
01:52I've been fortunate enough to be able to make money through creating work that I believe in.
01:58And it works out well because I've always imagined my work in a very commercial aspect. Like I imagine it on literally everything and everywhere.
02:09So it's very much aligned that I can still make money and still achieve my goal with my work.
02:17Naledi is no stranger to the global art scene. Throughout her blossoming career,
02:23her work has been showcased in cities like London and Chicago. She's made a success of herself on both the digital and traditional fronts.
02:32Who is she painting and drawing in her pictures?
02:35Because I create a lot of faces. It's never someone doing something. It's like the person's face.
02:41But I find faces extremely interesting. Any face, but mainly female faces because I feel like there's so much story behind just your face.
02:52So when I do create paintings, it would usually be of my family because they all carry very different stories.
03:00But for me, they're all bold. They're all strong. They're all very authentic.
03:04And they will be because I'm experiencing them as my mom's child. She's the realist to me.
03:10So it's so beautiful to be able to tell that story just by showing her face and still tell another story
03:16of another woman who's also bold and strong, but has a totally different face with a totally different story.
03:24El Kebulon, again, is an exhibit that my first time coming to South Africa,
03:30I just wanted to highlight something that was very important to me.
03:34Showcasing the original shape and name of the continent, which puts South Africa as the top of the continent.
03:41So as I'm getting here, I'm thinking of different like-minded creatives that I can relate with,
03:47whose work I resonate with. And Naledi was one of the few who caught my eye and I had been following her work for a while.
03:55The story she's telling, the way she's not just representing, but reclaiming the presence in her work
04:02and what she's communicating with her images and the composition, I really, I felt like it was in alignment with
04:11what I was trying to communicate with my exhibit and my work as well.
04:16With my paintings, I have a yellow line that I use on the faces, so it has no start or end.
04:23I think the symbolism in it is that it's a line that joins all the faces.
04:28It's the line that tells us how we all somehow share one story. It's a line that brings us all together.
04:35It's the same line you saw on her face, which is on my face.
04:38Having studied marketing management and digital art and design,
04:42Naledi says she's on a journey to owning the title of visual artist.
04:46The challenges I experienced as an artist is not having studied art,
04:53but being extremely passionate about it and feeling like it is a huge part of my life,
04:59but not being able to own it because I'm existing around people who studied it or people who have
05:07invested so much in it. So I think a bit of like imposter syndrome exists in that where I can't claim it
05:15more than the next person who actually spent years unpacking it. It went from a hobby to now what I
05:23think is a career. That has been a very challenging space to navigate for me.
05:34With a lot more in the pipeline for this unique artist, Black Womanhood in all its power and grace
05:40takes center stage in her art, and the world is watching.
