portrait by @johnalexsecond
To Request Catalogue or to get in touch for commissions and projects :
black.koki@gmail.com
+27 72 999 3940
@blackkoki
Cape Town, South Africa
Since 2004
☯
“I want to make images that are both hard to look at, and hard to look away from.”
BLACK KOKI is a South African born visual artist. His definitive mark is spontaneous as it is disruptive of visual convention. Crafted from experiences making drawings, painting and street art, his current artistic practice is post-graffiti, reflecting an interest in the relationship between space and data. He investigates warped spaces and textures that seem to define an urban reality augmented by the digital world. Social media quips meet organic, expressive forms in the synthetic hues of his enamel on glass paintings. Oddly digital in reference, the works also speak to an intuitive mark making of an art historical lineage such as Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Pop Art, Primitivism or Neo-Expressionist works. His works on glass embody an unmistakable nostalgia for the 1990s from the perspective of a contemporary digital age. The flavour of urban subcultures persists in his forms, merged with his personal experiences of city spaces such that his works become an abstract coding of the contemporary experience.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 - IN THE WAKE group show, Hugo Modern, Cape Town
- REFUSE THE GIVEN WORLD, group show, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town.
- WINTER group show, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town
2023 - PLUS MINUS, solo show, Lil’ Gallery, Cape Town.
2022 - PERMANENT BLISS, solo show, Lil’ Gallery, Cape Town.
- LAST MINUTE, solo show, Lil’ Gallery, Cape Town.
2021 - IN CONVERSATION, group show, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town.
2020 - ALWAYS SMILING, solo show, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg.
A HAZY SHADE OF WINTER, group salon, Salon 91, Cape Town.
TURBINE ART FAIR, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg.
2019 - ABSTRACT CONCRETE, Yt + Vans First Thursday, Cape Town; GROUP SHOW, 131 A Gallery, Cape Town; WILDFLOWERS group salon, Salon91, Cape Town.
2018 - CAPE TOWN ART FAIR, Salon91 Booth, Cape Town; TURBINE ART FAIR, Salon 91 Booth, Johannesburg; ART VISION, Private Reception/Group Show, Cape Town; ON WRITING, No End Gallery, Johannesburg; CAPE TOWN SALON, Association visual arts gallery Cape Town. FOLKLORE, Salon91, Cape Town.
2017 - TURBINE ART FAIR, Salon91 booth, Johannesburg; Ao, Salon91,Cape Town; SIMULACRUM, Gallery 2, Johannesburg; TREES MAKE FORESTS , Salon91, Cape Town.
2016 - STATIC, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg; SUPERMARKET ART FAIR, Stockholm; FIERCE NOW, Art Festival, Amsterdam.
2015 - LAUGH NOW, CRY LATER (solo show), Black Box Gallery, Cape Town.
2014 - TIME THROUGH SPACE, World Art Gallery, Cape Town; WINDOWS, Black Box Gallery, Cape Town; WINDOWS 0.2, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg.
2013 - FUTURE POSITIVE (Black Koki + Ello Xray Eyez), Black Box Gallery, Cape Town; LOOK 2, Side Street Studios, Cape Town; AFRO VIBES, Amsterdam.
2012 - BEAUTIFUL LOSERS, A Word of Art Gallery, Cape Town; KLICK KLACK, The Pit, Cape Town.
2011 - STROKE/03, Art Festival, Berlin; INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING PROJECT, Blank Projects, Cape Town; URBAN CONTEMPORARY, 34Fine Art, Cape Town; RENDEZEVOUS, Travelling Exhibtion, South Africa.
2010 - THOSE WHO LIVE IN IT, (With Ello Xray Eyez) MU Gallery, Eindhoven, The Netherlands; NOTHING IS EVERYTHING, group exhibition, Word of Art Gallery, Cape Town; TOFFIE POP CULTURE FESTIVAL, Cape Town; DECONSTRUCTION, M Contemporary, Sydney; LOVE AND HATE, (solo with Ello Xray Eyez) Gaënge Viertel Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
2008 - aKing, Kunsthaus, Cape Town; URBANSTRETCH, Trinity Session Gallery, Johannesburg.
2007 - BOEREKITCH, KKnK National Arts Festival; AUCTION EXHIBITION, The Bin, Cape Town.
2006 - THE INEVITABLE, Moja Modern, Johannesburg; NEW SUBURBIA, Platform on 18, Pretoria. CAMP ZERO, Curated by Asha Zero, Stolen Goods, Pretoria.