Reuben Mpangane

Reuben Mpangane is one of a handful of artists living in Mpumalanga who has a Fine Arts degree (1989, Unisa). He is also one of a handful of artists who has continued to create work despite their being almost no support for the visual arts in the province. This commitment and passion for image making can be seen clearly in his work. What makes him rarer still on the Mpumalanga art scene is the issues that his artwork explore. Not content to focus on wildlife and traditional village scenes, Reuben Mpangane takes a close look at the reality of the world that he lives in.

In his mixed media work Reuben Mpangane has painstakingly collected and cut up soft-drink tins and cut these to collage into his landscapes and studies of township life. Using a difficult (and limited in colour spectrum) medium he transforms waste into sublime reflections of the sky, buildings and earth. In these works he captures the searingly beautiful vistas of the escarpment and Lowveld. The pieces are also witty in that he has created the township images using the very materials that poor people use to construct their homes with.

Collections include: DBSA, Mpumalanga Legislature, Halls and son and private collections throughout the Lowveld.

Exhibitions: 1989, solo exhibition: Nelspruit, 1996 winner regional DBSA/Sowetan exhibition, 2000, Sculpture Exhibition Civic Centre Nelspruit, 2003 Group Exhibition: Soul of Africa DBSA, 2004 Group Exhibition, Innibos Arts Festival, Nelspruit, 2005 Solo Exhibition, Mbombela Civic Centre Nelspruit.