AGAC 2024 Top 25 Finalist - Themba Mkhangeli - Vincent Ink Gogh

Themba Mkhangeli is a visual artist and environmentalist with a penchant of entomology. He is a multi-winning awards ballpoint pen or visual artist. He grew up in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, in a small village called Julukuqu where his roots lie. He currently based an area dubbed "one of the roughest areas in South Africa, Nyanga East". This where most young people resort to teenage pregnancy, crime and drugs abuse when things don't go their way.

He is an aspiring artist who focuses mostly on the human form, particularly portraits. He started doing art at the age of five, but he realized his talents in Grade 6 while doing school projects. The older children encouraged him and from the environment his confidence grew.

His personal goal is to excel in all the aspects of art and to be recognized as a serious artist in the future. His ambition is to be represented in public, corporate and private galleries all over the world.

He plans to do art for a living since he believes “Art Is Life”. His dream is to own art studio and gallery and to serve as a mentor to young people, particularly from the poorer black communities. Acquiring artistic knowledge and skills will provide a positive attitude, confidence and a much-needed source of income.

He grew up without any formal art training, but after completing Matric he decided to follow his passion in art. He truly believes one needs to do what you love.

This drawing depict an old master of painting Vincent van Gogh. I tried my best to rebuild the portrait from post impressionism into hyperrealism to fit my style of drawing or painting, also to make it fresh and unique from what I have seen before. Van Gogh is one of the masters who inspired me through his earth toned scenes of nature.

I used insects as a symbol of appreciating nature. Because when I was a kid I used play with insects and kill them, but when I grew up I learned that insects are part of our lives and they play a huge role. I used rainbow colours pattern as a background to balance the foreground and to express happiness, feeling of togetherness, hope and fortune. 

The Aphids serves as a powerful symbol of, resilience transformation and the  state of being connected to one another. Insects are symbols of showing gratitude or admiring their impact on the earth. However, they also have symbolic meanings in various cultures and spiritual practices. Sometimes people don't really know how important little things are till it's too late. We need to be easily impressed and be hard to offend. 

It all started in primary school, when I fell in love with using a blue Pen. Writing with black pen was considered as dirty and brings bad luck. This also had a huge influence in my love for the colour blue . During that time I had no clue that oneday I would become an artist.
Growing up in Eastern Cape forced me to use the samepen to draw due to lack of drawing or painting material.
My artworks are inspired by things (nature) that I see in front of me everyday. My artwork gives positive message to the society, we need to respect and protect our nature.