
Navel Seakamela
1991
Navel Seakamela is a figurative painter exploring themes of self-representation and Black identity from the perspective of his own post-Apartheid generation.
Navel Seakamela was born in Soshanguve, Tshwane in 1991, and grew up in Tembisa township just outside Johannesburg. His subjects appear as silhouettes of ambiguous gender, with few details or distinguishing features other than their dark tonality and, very often, prominent red mouths. Although his large-scale paintings depict not so much the individual person as a sense of shared identity, the close framing of his subjects and emotive expression lend his portraits an intimacy and sense of vulnerability. Through his work, he addresses feelings of isolation, gender precepts and the psychological impact of consumerist culture.
Seakamela’s interest in art began at the Tembisa Art Centre, leading him to pursue more formal studies at Tshwane University of Technology. where he completed a diploma in visual arts in 2015. He was a finalist in the PPC Imaginarium Art Competition (2015) and the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards (2014) and apprenticed under Angus Taylor at the Dionysys Sculture Works in 2017. Seakamela has participated in numerous local exhibitions since 2013, including Spring Awakening (2022) at Southern Guild; Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt, which was part of FNB Art Joburg’s Open City (2021); Divided Self at P72 Projects (2021); and shows at North West University Gallery in Potchefstroom, Tshwane University of Technology Gallery and the Pretoria Art Museum. He has shown his work at the FNB Joburg Art Fair and Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, and at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Southern Guild.
He has held solo exhibitions at Kalashnikovv Gallery in Johannesburg (2021), Nel Gallery in Cape Town (2021), Bonne Espérance in Paris (2022) and Southern Guild in Cape Town (2022). He was the inaugural artist in the GUILD Residency, during which he completed the body of work for his first solo with Southern Guild, Who We Should Not Be.
Present: Lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
1991: Born in Soshanguve, Tshwane
2015: Diploma in Visual Arts, Tshwane University of Technology
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Who We Should Not Be, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
People Are Flowers, Bonne Espérance, Paris, France
2021
Reflect, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Inner Space, Nel Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
As If We Knew, Pretoria Art Museum, Tshwane, South Africa
On Lines and Lineage, Cavalli Gallery, Somerset West, South Africa
2022
Spring Awakening, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
2022
Contemporary African Art: The Dreams and Realities of Identity, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Tumo Gallery, Vilinius, Lithuania
2022
Sharing A Moment | Contemporary African Art Exhibition, Tumo Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2018
Tactic, North West University Gallery, Potchefstroom, South Africa
FAIRS
2023
Investec Cape Town Art Fair
2022
Investec Cape Town Art Fair
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg
2021
FNB Joburg Art Fair
AWARDS
2015: PPC Imaginarium Art Competition, Finalist
2014: Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Finalist
RESIDENCIES
2022: GUILD Residency, Cape Town, South Africa
2013: Kopanong Art Residency, Pretoria, South Africa
COLLECTIONS
Investec Corporate Collection, Cape Town, South Africa