Zenande Mtati loves what he does and doubts he’ll stop | Arts

• Zenande Mtati is a multidisciplinary artist working in paint, collage, and photography.
• Taking on this very distinct style, his portraits strike the desired balance of being easy to identify, without being predictable.
• A self-taught artist, it wasn’t until someone offered to buy his work that he considered being a full-time artist.

It’s a Thursday afternoon in Maboneng. Next door to William Kentridge’s The Centre for the Less Good Idea, is a coffee shop. I wait outside it to meet Zenande Mtati, a multidisciplinary artist specialising in paint, collage and photography.

Carrying nothing but a film camera, wearing khaki pants, a white T-shirt, and opaque Crocs, Mtati approaches me with a demure smile. Our conversation starts shortly after the coffee shop’s playlist cues Lauren Hill’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You. A mutual favourite, we smile at each other when its opening acapella permeates the room. Once we settle into our beverages, Mtati tells me about the boxing series he is working on.

“I bought a boxing book. It reminded me of my dad because he would take me to boxing matches when I was growing up.”

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A recluse, Mtati was happy to leave the house because being out of the house presents him with an opportunity to get some film for his camera.

A self-taught artist, he took an interest in drawing in high school. “I like to look at people. Painting helps me study the faces that I like.” Since then, he has keenly developed his own style.

You know a painting is by Mtati through its subject’s resting eyes, full lips, narrow noses, and technicoloured street style. Taking on this very distinct style, Mtati’s portraits strike the desired balance of being easy to identify without being predictable.

“All I want is for people to be able to identify my work,” he sighs. “If people can recognise my work, it must mean I am building a following.”

The portrait forms an integral part of Mtati’s style because his visual messaging is about black identity and how it manifests within the different communities we are a part of and the spaces we occupy. “The people I know and encounter helped mould how I walk in my identities. That’s what it’s about,” Mtati adds.

It’s also the reason the never-ending series Indlela Zokubona Ikhaya exists. “Everywhere I go, I try to make a home. I see parts of myself and pieces of myself in everyone. That’s how I want to perceive the world, by finding our likeness and connecting through it.”

In some instances, the work goes beyond reality, imagining an uninterrupted blackness. We see this in the painting Abantu II. Made in 2021, Abantu II is a collage-style portrait occupied by 24 subjects, closely packed together on the canvas. While they occupy a very compact space, they’re at ease, going about their days without obtrusion.

An independent artist, Mtati’s primary point of contact is where the artist is his most elusive: Instagram. Although the public account, replies to followers, and the 100 and something posts on his Instagram profile suggest he’s accessible, Mtati’s online presence is careful. “I don’t say a lot,” he says. “Instagram is mainly there so more people can have access to me and the work.

“So far, his work has been exhibited at Gallery F’s Speak Truth to Power (2020); the Afrovibes Festival in Amsterdam (2019 and 2021); 99 Loop Gallery’s 12 Hours of Breathing (2021); and The Fourth’s House Party exhibition. Yes, there have been gallerists who have used Instagram to approach Mtati. He does however, add that he also puts himself out there. “I’m always talking to people. When I see open calls, I apply.”

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A film graduate, Mtati’s sensibilities are unlike art majors. “Film school is where I learnt about colour so that’s how I approach colour.” From a discourse point of view, Mtati looked to director Spike Lee.

“Even when he isn’t making a super serious movie, it speaks to me. That’s what I want to do. It’s how I want people to be impacted by my work.”

Although he’s from Gompo in East London, Mtati’s introduction to the public happened while he was living in Cape Town. After studying film at CityVarsity, the rest of Mtati’s time in Cape Town was spent in advertising, during which he received the opportunity to make content for Mercedes-Benz, the Bokeh Film Festival, Adidas, and Nandos.

MIKE. Acrylic, Pen and Oil Pastels on Fabriano Paper. 48,6 x 70 cm (Supplied by artist)

In 2018 however, the fleets he was making in Cape Town stopped taking precedence. “I was finding it a little hard to navigate Cape Town. Even though I was living in the CBD, I felt isolated and I kept thinking about how I felt when I was in Johannesburg,” he explains.

Commenting On whether being in Johannesburg has affected his approach to art, Mtati says, “it a hundred percent has.” Self-described as having community-based artistic practice, Mtati says his work directly results from the people and experiences around him. It’s why his portraits are named after people.

Even though the people in his paintings are fictional characters, “The titles are actual people I grew up around,” Mtati says. “Some are my friends; others are neighbours, others I know from taking taxis, walking through Braamfontein, the kids I see everywhere. You can’t be in Joburg and not be infected by it.”

Yes, his work speaks to our existence in relation to the existence of the people around us, but the urge to put his musings on canvas comes in solitude. “I process all that I come across when I am alone. Then I need a release. Painting is where I put that energy.” It’s the same reason people aren’t allowed in his studio while he works.

Nomalanga. 56.5 x 75.5 cm. Acrylic and oil pastels on Fabriano, 2021. (Supplied by artist)

His best work is made while he is alone, which is also why he relinquished a budding career in film. “They weren’t bad people. I just do my best outside of a team,” he explains.

But it was only when someone offered to buy one of his posters that Mtati began considering being a full-time artist. He laughs. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is serious’ after I got R400 for something I had drawn. I could live off this.” Today Mtati has work with an estimated value of more than R36 700.

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