Biography
Born in eThekwini in 1996, Samkelo Matomela studied at H.P. Ngwenya Primary School before moving to Soweto in 2010 to live with his mother. His pursuit of art began to take shape at Tetelo Secondary School. He later studied Town and Regional Planning, before leaving to pursue Printmaking at Artist Proof Studio, where he graduated. He now works full time across printmaking, murals and painting.
Artist statement
These works are grounded in copper as both material and ideology. Copper is chosen for its reactivity: its ability to oxidise, stain and record time. The material becomes the metaphor, where the medium is no longer simply a vessel but part of the meaning. What may be read as corrosion becomes evidence of exposure, pressure and memory embedded in the surface.
The figures are positioned as sites of power and self-possession. Their engagement with texts, including the Qur’an and writings of Black consciousness, reflects spiritual grounding and intellectual reclamation. These moments of reading assert knowledge as inheritance, resistance and authority, placing the Black subject firmly within cultural and intellectual lineage.
The snake appears not as a symbol of transformation, but of danger and corruption: a subtle force seeking to infiltrate and destabilise a Black mind in the process of awakening. Moving toward knowledge rather than the body, it reflects how corruption can target consciousness quietly, strategically and persistently.
Through copper’s conductivity and instability, the work draws parallels between material and mind. Just as copper is shaped by contact, consciousness is shaped by exposure. The artworks reclaim the Black figure as an active bearer of knowledge, insisting that awareness itself is resistance, even in the presence of threat.