Moleleki Frank Ledimo

Moleleki Frank Ledimo is as much a cultural activist as he is an artist. Below is an outline of how his career has developed so far. Moleleki Frank Ledimo is a big man, with a mischievous giggle. He has a way of inspiring people at the same time as making them feel very safe.

A large portion of his art making is devoted to print making. Ledimo has been involved with The Artist Proof Studio in Johannesburg for many years and one has the sense that he feels at home within the world of "democratic multiples".

Moleleki Frank Ledimo's prints are carefully hand coloured and serve as a visual documentation of inner city and evolving suburban life in Gauteng.

Artists Statement:

"I create work that is based on the urban landscape in which I live. I have been fascinated by the representation of the figure to relay messages of urban squalor, citylife, survivors and victims of urbanisation.

I am interested in how the city offers an array of aspects of life - exploitation, forced migration, various encounters and passing scenes as if from a film storyboard.

The medium of scratch lithography has allowed me to use fresh, expressive lines & work spontaneously with each line building the image and each line being important expressive mark. On the other hand experimenting and pushing the boundaries of traditional lithography & am fascinated by accidents that one discovers through this new medium."
Moleleki Frank Ledimo 2003

Moleleki Frank Ledimo has worked extensively with local government and educational institutions including having been the manager of the Bus Factory, which houses a number of key cultural projects in the cultural precinct of Johannesburg, Newtown. Prior to this he joined Wits University as Head of the Wits Art Galleries (WAG) in 2002. He was previously employed as the Tourism & Marketing Manager for the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. As part of his art career, he has taught art at Funda Centre, Wits Technikon and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. He has worked for Gauteng Art & Culture, as deputy Director responsible for Gauteng's Cultural Industries Growth strategy .

He has made contributions to numerous publications, Craft South Africa (2002), and various FNB Vita Craft & Art catalogues. He has delivered several papers, selected among these are, "SA Museums & Heritage - their importance and role in society" (1999, Wits P&DM) and "Opening Museums: A Brief comparison between the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Johannesburg Art Gallery (1998, Jhb Art Gallery). He is member of the African Social Advocacy Resource Group, based on Goree Island in Senegal.

Ledimo holds a Master of Fine (MFA) in Museum Studies (Tufts University, Boston, USA), BA (Fine Arts) & BA (Fine Arts) Honours degrees (University of Fort Hare), a Marketing for the Arts qualification (Institute of Marketing Management - IMM, Richmond, Jhb) and Executive Course in Strategic Development & Leadership (Wits P&DM). In 1992 he was awarded various Scholarships: African Arts Fund Inc., Tufts University Graduate School of the Arts and Sciences, Quentin-Brown Scholarship for Human Rights, UN Scholarship (UNETPSA), to study in the US.

Artists

Lithographs 2002