Buqaqawuli Thamani Nobakada (b. 2000-) is an emerging contemporary mixed media artist born in the Western Cape and raised between Philippi township and a remote village in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape called Cumakala. Nobakada was first introduced to Fine Art in Johannesburg in the beginning of her adolescence and uses her academic background in architecture to create elaborate painting installations featuring materials that play into themes of black opulence and luxury, namely lace and various gemstones. Her primary medium is acrylic paint on hand prepared laced paper, often with the use of custom clay or gold jewellery. This is the medium through which much of the passion in her work is demonstrated; as she creates a delicate environment designed to affirm the beauty and gentleness with which she sees herself whilst simultaneously teaching the world how to see her, and anyone else who sees any part of themselves reflected back as they engage with the black female protagonists portrayed in Nobakada’s domestic moments of exaggerated abundance and intimacy.

Nobakada’s work reflects the regal performances of femininity and beauty she finds herself surrounded by as she navigates tensions between traditional and modern expressions of beauty in a postcolonial world, and its relationship with the growing socioeconomic autonomy of women. Her elaborate figurative paintings of herself and the women around her display women in soft moments of non-sexual intimacy, this strategic self-disclosure allows black women to bear witness their own (and each other’s) “complex personhood” and to their rich interiority.

Nobakada is currently completing her Honours degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand and is partaking in 2 online shows in the overall Latitudes Curator Lab group exhibition, whilst working towards the RMB Latitudes art fair in May 2023. Nobakada’s craft extends outside of the fine art discipline and into the world of fashion through collaborative work with the renowned Levi’s Haus. She has exhibited in the “I Am & Nothing Else,” group exhibition with Affinity art gallery in Lagos, Nigeria and in the “Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt” Open City group exhibition by Anelisa Mangcu and Jana Terblanche for FNB Art Joburg.

“Black feminism is distinctive in its commitment to love as a political practice.”

- Nash, J: Love in the time of death