Earlier this year, one of the world’s most popular refreshing candies, Halls, launched a campaign to support the creative industry by partnering with one of SA’s best illustrators and street artists, Karabo Poppy, through the #BreatheForIt campaign, to mentor South African artists and equip them with the means needed to fill the globe with South African originality. Since the launch of #BreatheForIt, Halls and Karabo Poppy have selected 9 promising artists who will revitalize a blank space popular arts & culture space, Braamfontein with their very own mural.
Introducing our first #BreatheForIt Mentee, Levy Pooe, who completed a mural on the Kitcheners Nightclub entrance as part of the prestigious mentorship program.
Levy Pooe is a South African visual artist born during the country’s transition to democracy. He began his artistic career at a very young age, he was struck by how things looked and how reality can be represented and how it could be altered. He pursued this interest, and studied Visual Arts in high school. He mostly works from his home studio but sometimes does murals and live documentation, especially interpretations of musical performances. Levy’s work explores urban experiences of ordinary people. His bold acrylic paintings of the quotidian forces the audience to engage honestly with his work and to make up their own understanding of what the work means.
The artists work reveals to us that true accounts of ourselves do not have be found only in the spectacle but through the mundane we are able find genuine non-performative accounts of our experience. The artist deals with themes such as black figures engaged in contemplative activities, daily rituals and routines as well as the relationship between the urban space and migrants. He is interested in fully interrogating the idea of art as a social diary, a public diary of a black being in the city.
Connect With Levy Pooe
Facebook: Levy Pooe
Twitter: @levypooe
Instagram: @levy_pooe
Website: https://www.levypooe.com/
Halls Image Credit: Themba Mbuyisa
Special Thanks To: Capacity Relations
