Diezel Gallery
OUR ARTISTS
DIEZEL
International Superstroke Pop Artist Diezel, is an illustrator and painter who was born on a farm in South Africa and now lives and works between studios in Sydney Australia and Johannesburg South Africa.
Diezel’s work immerses us in a world of strong images and line work where multiple layers are often over-painted, splashed or peeled back to expose or hide other layers. Taking a record of strong influence of popart, the Superstroke Art Movement and childhood cartoon characters, Diezel comments on ‘LIFE’ through strong line work, illustration and writing. Her LIFE Collection is the most figurative series, where works in acrylic, spray paint and pastel, comes to life with dripping paint, characters, and writing, that reflect with humor and irony, different moods, situations and circumstances of existence.
‘Sometimes I am interested in the bright, the cheerful, humour and lightness of being, counteracted by creative phases where I focus more on the complexities and darker side of life. To be happy, hurt, lost or bereft are emotions innately visceral and part of a fully lived life. We all experience all of those emotions at some point. With my drip paintings, every drip and colour is symbolic of an emotion or experience, stating how we are are shaped by it, how we ‘become’ our experiences’.
CONRAD BO
Conrad Bo paints in the style of Superstroke and Superblur through which he attempts to communicate his views on social issues, historical events and avant garde art theory.
Innovation in contemporary art is Conrad Bo’s main objective and he strives to achieve this by using manifesto driven art, and the concept of ‘Calculated Chaos’. He executes his Superstroke and Superblur paintings by using expressive, even violent brushstrokes, symbols, writing and dripping, to comment on issues of life, history, decoration, morality, and identity.
DANISILE NJOLI
I am an artist, a lover, a dreamer, a fighter and a seeker. I have a keen vision and deep feeling for human life and what lies deep beneath our souls. and is inspired by design ideas, innovations and lifestyle.
My creation process is spontaneous and I use charcoal, acrylic and other mediums to capture the emotions of my subjects. I want the viewer to feel the upliftment and the mood I feel when I apply the various elements with wild and vibrant strokes of colour and texture.
My works are semi-realistic, combined
SHADRACK BOSMAN
For me, visual art is a lifelong exercise. My biggest influence is, and always has been my parents. My father was an architect, and my mother was a costume designer and I was exposed to art, design and the creative process from a young age. I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to them and other creators that has gone before me, designing and creating and building cities, that I now paint. I do what I do because of them.
For many people in different cultures and religions, colours have different symbolic values. My colour use is simple but symbolic and have biblical connotations. I have termed this ‘the old testament colour symbolics’. Colour can have a healing influence on a person’s emotional and psychological centre. As per example, blue is a symbol of hope in my work. To some, red is a symbol of danger, but I would like to counter that narrative by reclaiming it as a symbol of supernatural love. I use yellow and gold to symbolise wisdom, knowledge and deep understanding. My work is an attempt to use colour symbolism in order to influence healing of the emotional and the psychological centre of the viewer. I believe that this is my way to contribute in the healing of our country (South Africa).
STOFFEL MOGANO
Stoffel Malese Mogano (also known as Stoff Mog), is a visual artist currently based in Johannesburg. He was born in 1992, and brought up in Ga-Mphahlele Village in South Africa’s Limpop district. After matriculation, Stoffel went on to further his studies at the University of Johannesburg and the Tshwane University of Technology, graduating in 2016 under Fine Arts department.
Visual art has always been a part of Stoffel’s life from an early age of 7 years, and has since been evolving and developing his artistic skill throughout the years leading up to the current time.
The concept in Stoffel’s work is predicated upon the idea of ‘The Journey’ – the act of moving from one place to another in an effort to ascertain and achieve goals and aspirations.
The world he exists in is currently Johannesburg city and surrounds, in South Africa and this environment provides the inspiration for Stoffel’s work. “We rise in the early hours of the morning, traveling from this one place to another one, with our feet on the ground, encountering challenging moments, streets to cross and directions to take. Our feet take us there, and in my work, feet is a metaphor for ‘The Journey’ of Life – moving towards our goals and the struggles on the way. The walk, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or even annually, represent the Journey — the sense of hope and possibility of arriving at the ultimate point (the significant goal or point of success)
In the end our journey test our commitment, our will, our strength and determination to carry on – testing our desire to reach our goals or to
JOHN NKOSI
Just when you think you have knowledge about a particular thing, you realise how much more there is to learn. As a creative, a learner and a human, I not only learn about painting and drawing, I learn more about myself with every work I produce. I conclude that I may never know myself, which is what makes this practice interesting.
I paint intuitively. At times I become very uncertain while painting, never sure about the outcome, until the moment of clarity. I never rush to paint or plan to paint, it is simply an act that presents itself at any given time.
As of recent, the themes of my works were influenced by human condition, freedom and identity, with a special focus on movement and post modern dance. The subjects are drawn, sometimes painted and includes large scale figures in
motion or still form. The subjects are sometimes in an internal battle to set themselves free from social influence and conditioning to reclaim their truth and identity. These figures are not rebels and although they present as fearless, they are actually vulnerable and peaceful ‘warriors’ fighting for their true identity.
NANDIPA BLACKROSE
NICCI SWARTZ
My paintings all depicting portraits of both human and animal, showcase the spirit of the subject, some painted on traditional African fabrics, some on plain, but always with the bright if not fluorescent colours showing fiercely strong emotion and character.
While all these influences hail from my childhood, later on while studying I fell in love with the artist Gustav Klimt and his use of gold and pattern, partnered with this, and my love of painting large scale murals, street art and graffiti my style became a juxtaposition from all the tradition and interpreted into that of an ‘Urban Contemporary’ style based on large scale portraits using acrylics, graffiti paint, stencil patterns and often Gold or Silver Leaf.
Featured Work
