Colbert Mashile

Colbert Mashile was born in 1972 in Bushbuckridge in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Coming from a family of teachers Mashile was expected to continue the family tradition and while he studied in Pretoria he became interested in the art he saw being produced on the streets and exhibited in galleries. This led Mashile to the Johannesburg Art Foundation (1994), followed by a degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand (2000) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Heritage Studies (2002). In addition to his academic work Mashile has studied printmaking at Johannesburg’s David Krut Workshop with prominent South African and international printers, including Tim Foulds, Zhane Warren and Randy Hemminghaus. Mashile and his family live in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Through his creative work Mashile explores the relationship between the collective and the individual aspects of the psyche. His belonging to the Sotho culture, its history, customs and environment, and his personal psychological experiences within it are a continuous source of inspiration for Mashile. His “images are completely based in his African identity and yet they link up with the universal. His horned figures that loom over men, coffin-like vehicles and vast landscapes fill his prints. Mashile’s fine sense of color compliments his forms, which seem to celebrate a connection to the earth.”

“Colbert Mashile,” ArtPrintSA: www.artprintsa.com/colbert-mashile.html, retrieved on October 27, 2008.

Ibid.