While South African artist and printmaker Lloyd Maluleke was in the United States, his work was presented by Daisha Board Gallery in Dallas, Texas. On 31 July 2026, Joy Joy I was acquired by a collector and found a new home in a growing private collection.
Created in 2025, Joy Joy I is a 24 × 24-inch work combining linocut, acrylic and handmade paper. The portrait carries many of the qualities that define Maluleke’s practice: expressive mark-making, layered colour and an intimate engagement with childhood, memory and emotional experience.
At the centre of the composition is a young figure rendered through the unmistakable texture of linocut. Purple, blue and pink surround the portrait, while the surface of the handmade paper gives the work a physical presence beyond the printed image. The result is both immediate and tender—a work that invites viewers to pause and encounter the person within it.
Art moving across borders
For Maluleke, the placement of Joy Joy I represents another important point in a practice grounded in South African life but capable of speaking across geographical and cultural boundaries.
Born in Thomo village in Limpopo and now based in Johannesburg, Maluleke draws from childhood, family, rural life and the emotional worlds of young people. His work carries these experiences without confining them to one place. When a work such as Joy Joy I enters a collection in Dallas, it opens a new relationship between the story held within the artwork and the person who chooses to live with it.
This is what collecting can make possible. An artwork leaves the studio, enters a different environment and begins a life beyond the artist—while continuing to carry the history, choices and human experiences from which it was made.
A milestone for Perspective Art
The sale also holds particular meaning for Perspective Art.
Lloyd is not only one of the artists represented through our platform; he is a co-founder of Perspective Art and an important part of the vision behind it. His journey reflects what we are working to build: considered pathways through which contemporary South African art can be discovered, understood and collected, both locally and internationally.
This moment is therefore both personal and shared. It celebrates Lloyd’s continued growth as an artist, while affirming the value of creating opportunities for African artworks to move into new spaces without losing the context from which they emerged.
We extend our appreciation to Daisha Board Gallery for presenting the work and creating a space in which artists and collectors can meet. We are equally grateful to the collector who chose to make Joy Joy I part of their collection.
The work has found its home, but its story continues.
Media courtesy of Daisha Board Gallery
