South African artist, Sam Nhlengethwa, is a consummate jazz connoisseur who has acquired a collection in excess of 5000 vinyl records acquires around the world on his extensive travels. Jazz has been a lifelong passion for him and features prominently in his work throughout his career, and the musicians Keith Jarrett and Miriam Makeba rank amongst his favourites. Nhlengethwa works with carefully selected images from public media such as magazines and posters. These found images are appropriated, reproduced, cut up, and fragmented to create new images, relationships and meanings, combining printed material with photography, drawing and painting.

Keith Jarrett, Oil and collage on canvas | 2017

Keith Jarrett is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success as a group leader and a solo performer in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music. His improvisations draw from the traditions of jazz and other genres, especially Western classical music, gospel, blues, and ethnic folk music.

Miriam Makeba, Oil and collage on canvas | 2017

Miriam Makeba, nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer, songwriter, actress, United Nations goodwill ambassador, and civil rights activist. Associated with musical genres including Afropop, jazz, and world music, she was an advocate against apartheid in South Africa.

A little bit more about Sam Nhlengethwa:

Sam Nhlengethwa, who was born in 1955 and studied at Rorke’s Drift and Johannesburg Art Foundation, is unquestionably an artist from the city, has adjusted the style and content of his works, post-apartheid, to explore themes such as music, especially jazz. He reflects on the lives of ordinary people – their homes and work places. All his work, irrespective of the medium, uses collage as a point of departure.