Artist Vuyo Mfokazi's work is not just about the visual; it's about feeling. He gave up a career as a suit to create, instead. Here's why.
Give artist Vuyo Mfokazi a brush, some paint and space, and he will return an emotion to you.
This 34-year-old artist is on the starting blocks of greatness because his work speaks as much as it feels.
Mfokazi was never going to be an artist. He grew up in a boarding school and spent much of his childhood taking things apart and putting them back together again.
“I’ve always been a hands-on child,” he said. “Fixing radios, playing guitar, drawing, writing poetry. I was always busy.” But being creative and being allowed to follow a creative career are two very different things.
Like so many promising artists, he said, he pursued what sounded safe instead. Mfokazi studied Development Studies at varsity to keep the peace at home.
“There’s this idea that art doesn’t pay,” he said.
At one point, he was even steered towards a career in medicine.
“Your parents already have their own vision for you. And people obey because they’re scared. But that fear steals your life. Before you know it, you’re working a job you hate, wondering where the real you went.”
He did the same thing.
“I did something that looked important. At least it made my mother comfortable.”
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‘Fear steals your life’
After graduating from Nelson Mandela University, he worked as an intern in an office for a year, and it killed his spirit.
“I couldn’t even walk into that office without something to drink just to get through the day,” he said. “By November, I told my mother: I’m not going back. I’ll take a chance on this other thing I feel inside me.”
That “other thing” took him to Johannesburg nine years ago, at first to chase music. He sang Afro-pop in his home language and played his own compositions.
Somewhere between the gigs and eking out a living, he met someone who told him about an art course in Newtown, which he enrolled for immediately.
“Those months made me fall in love with painting,” he said. “I didn’t finish the course, but I painted every day. And once it opened in me, I couldn’t close it.”
He said that he pursued self-study, visiting second-hand bookshops and reading old art books. It’s what taught him his technique, he shared.
Mfokazi has a penchant for abstracts.
“Colour is very important for me,” he said. “It moves. Then it brings back memories. It gives people a feeling, maybe even some therapy. When someone looks at my work, I want them to connect. Not just scroll past.”
He said he never plans a work, because it just flows.
“I express. I want people to pick up that playfulness. Even a child must be able to relate to the work, not only adults.” He said he paints “everything I see in my daily life. The people I meet. The things I go through. It’s all just references I interpret in my own way.”
‘Even a child must relate to my work’
Mfokazi paints from a secret garden-like artist’s compound in Linbro Park, wedged between Edenvale and Sandton.
It’s an incredible space, and creativity is inevitable in that kind of environment. There’s a veggie garden, old wrecks of clapped-out cars, artist studios and community pups.
Sculptures line the driveway and inside his studio, works in various stages of completion, sketches on the floor, and a sense of creative energy. It’s a rush for any visitor. And it’s not difficult to fall in love with his work, and how it can make you feel.
He is presently exhibiting at Art Eye in Dainfern.
His work, he said, does carry a universal message.
“Believing in yourself is everything,” he said. “There’s noise everywhere. If I listened to people around me, I’d be stuck in an office, bored, and stressed. But the belief kept me going. It’s not easy, but it takes you somewhere. If you believe in your gift, tomorrow will bring something.”
