DAVID KOLOANE

Koloane is held as an authority figure for African artists. This reverence stems from his dedication to his artistic practice as well as his other cultural endeavors including writing, curating and establishing spaces for artists of colour to be mentored and grow. Beyond these actions, his temperament empowered friendly engagements within the framework of his resoluteness.

Koloane in earlier years was an artist and writer full of righteous anger, expressing this sometimes harshly, with his ballpoint pen eventually tearing through his paper, or breaking pencils to put that feeling into drawings. Yet he generally spoke quietly, with an economy of words. He could be stern, voicing furious resistance to apartheid authoritarianism but maintained a gentle attitude to the people he dealt with and worked alongside. In his later years, Koloane was still the man of righteous anger, the champion of human rights for all, a voice for the disadvantaged. He became a respected elder who used his art and writings to promote those rights, demand greater understanding of the other, demanding better from those in power.