Zandile Tshabalala was born in Soweto, South Africa in 1999. She is a visual artist and is currently completing her BA(FINA) at the University of the Witwatersrand. The mediums she uses most are acrylic and oil paint, at times infusing the two with some sculptural elements, and bringing it all together on the canvas. She tends to revisit and make reference to the works of painters who came before her, and interpret or rework the works in the way she sees fit for her narrative and relatable to her practice. To name a few artists, the works of Kerry James Marshall, Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, Cinga Samson, Nandipha Mntambo, and Henri Rousseau have stood out the most in influencing the artist’s way of thinking and working through her paintings. In her work, she is interested in topics of representation particularly the representation of the black women in historical paintings.
