Zolani Siphungela is young, black and disappointed. “I look around me and I see emptiness in people’s eyes” says Siphungela, who is convinced that this emptiness is caused by the excessive pursuit of money. “No matter whether one is rich or poor, has it or wants it, the result remains the same: an empty soul. It robs us of our culture, our dignity and our humanity”.

For his first solo exhibition, titled angels with dirty faces, Siphungela has created a body of paintings that asks questions about the effect this has on our leaders, our attitudes and our relationships with each other.
He is a good painter and his paintings reveal a sensitive and unhurried approach. His compositions are clever and his subjects are familiar, adding more punch to sensitive subject matter.

Zolani Siphungela was born in 1983 in Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape. From 2007 to 2009 he attended the Walter Sisulu University in East London where he studied towards a diploma in fine art. In 2010 he moved to Cape Town and in 2011 became the second recipient of the Worldart artist’s residency programme.