Ayanda Mabulu

Ayanda Mabulu (born 1981) is a visual artist known for his politically charged paintings that critique systems of power, inequality, and the ongoing violence inflicted upon the Black body. Mabulu’s work confronts South Africa’s colonial and post-apartheid histories while engaging broader conversations around race, identity, and liberation.^[1][2]

Mabulu was born in 1981 in the Eastern Cape (often cited as King William’s Town / Qonce). He is largely self-taught and began developing his practice in Johannesburg, working from studios including the Bag Factory, Braamfontein Werf, and more recently within the Play Braam complex.^[3][4]

Mabulu’s practice engages themes of exploitation, systemic violence, and resistance, positioning the Black body as a contested site of both trauma and resilience. His confrontational style has generated both critical praise and public controversy, combining performance, sculpture, figurative painting, satire, and allegory. He has described his aim as provoking conversations that uplift the Black community and call attention to social injustices.^[5]

His work has been shown widely in South Africa and internationally. He has been represented and exhibited by galleries such as Kalashnikovv Gallery, Worldart Gallery, CIRCA and Everard Read, and his work has appeared in museum exhibitions abroad, notably the DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago.^[6][7]

• A Collection of Works by Ayanda Mabulu, Everard Read, Johannesburg (2023).^[8]
• The Healers, Everard Read, Johannesburg (2022).^[9]
• Troublemaker: Art Is Our Only Hope, DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, United States (2018).^[10]
• Concerning Violence, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg (2018).^[11]
• FREEDOM OF __EECH, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg (2018).^[12]
• Footprints on Commissioner Street 1886/2016, with James Delaney, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg (2016).^[13]
• Cosmos of Oneness, Chengdu, China (2014).^[14]
• Solo exhibition, Chenshia Museum, Wuhan, China (2011) – catalogue ‘’Beautiful Imperfection’’, p. 64.^[15]
• Un-mute my tongue, Worldart Gallery, Cape Town (2010).^[16]

• Our Fathers, AVA Gallery, Cape Town (2012).^[17]
• Greatmore Studio Showcase, Greatmore Art Studios, Cape Town (2012).^[18]
• ST-ART 2019, Galerie Galea, Strasbourg, France (2019).^[19]
• AFREECA, Galerie Galea, Beaumettes, France (2019).^[20]
• The Unturning Wheel, Latitudes Centre for the Arts, Johannesburg (2024).^[21]
• 33.55°S, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town (2025).^[22]

• AKAA Art Fair, Paris (multiple years).^[23]
• Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town (multiple years).^[24]
• FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg (multiple years).^[25]
• 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2019, 2022).
• Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul (2023).^[26]

Works by Ayanda Mabulu are held in several institutional and private collections, including the Standard Bank Art Collection (South Africa), the Spier Arts Trust, the Merchantec Capital Collection, the Leridon Collection (France), and the DuSable Museum of African American History (Chicago, United States).^[27]

Mabulu has undertaken residencies at the Chenshia Art Foundation (Wuhan, China, 2011), the Greatmore Art Studios (Cape Town, c.2011–2013), and the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios (Johannesburg), where he participated in the Thupelo Workshop.^[28][29]

Mabulu’s visual language fuses African folklore, political iconography, and a satirical, often graphic figuration to critique economic and racial power structures. Works such as Infant Democracy (2017) and several high-profile political satires exemplify his frequent use of allegory, figurative exaggeration and gold leaf in large-scale canvases. His approach deliberately courts provocation as a means to foreground injustices and institutional failures.^{[30] [31][32][33]}

Mabulu has been at the centre of repeated controversies for provocative depictions of public figures — notably several works depicting former President Jacob Zuma and other well-known political personalities in compromising or sexualised imagery. These works prompted national debate, media coverage and official responses; they also led to online backlash and, at times, death threats directed at the artist. Mabulu defended his practice, stating: “Why must I hide the truth when it is as blatant as the sun?”^{[34][35][36][37][38][39][40]}

Mabulu's work of 2010, Ngcono ihlwempu kunesibhanxa sesityebi (Xhosa translation: “Better poor than a rich puppet”), depicted various international political figures in the nude, including Jacob Zuma. The painting received little critical comment at the time, but was rediscovered as part of the political controversy surrounding fellow South African Brett Murray’s painting (The Spear) in May 2012.^[41]

Mabulu criticised Zuma and the African National Congress for their response to Murray's satirical painting – and that of the Nazareth Baptist (Shembe) Church, who called for Murray to be “stoned to death”.^[42] He questioned their motives in attacking it, having ignored Mabulu’s own work – which depicts Zuma alongside Desmond Tutu, Robert Mugabe, Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela in similar fashion.^[43] The debate provoked a response from the Worldart Gallery, where Mabulu's art had been exhibited.^[44][45]

• Ngcono ihlwempu kunesibhanxo sesityebi, 2010

In 2016, Mabulu released a new painting of Jacob Zuma performing a sexual act on Atul Gupta, the wealthy Indian-South African businessman who has been accused of influence over the president. The painting was accused of being extreme and condemned by many. South African newspapers and media reported widely on it and there was mixed reactions from across the country.^[46][47][48]

In April 2017, Mabulu once again released yet another artwork, this time depicting Jacob Zuma engaged in sex with former President Nelson Mandela.^[49] Mabulu described the image as portraying what Zuma has done to Mandela's legacy. This divided opinions, but more so because many South Africans who took offence were mainly angered at the debasing of the personality of the widely beloved Mandela.^[50] This time it was not only condemnation that came but also death-threats which Mabulu shrugged off.^[51]

Both the African National Congress and the Nelson Mandela Foundation reacted to the painting by releasing statements. However, in a remarkable approach, both their statements combined condemnation with upholding the need for freedom of expression (see: South African Constitution).^[52][53][54]

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said:^[55]
"The Foundation would like to express that it respects Mr Mabulu’s right to freedom of expression. We however find this painting distasteful."

The African National Congress described the image as: ″crossing the bounds of rationality to degradation, exploiting the craft of creative art for nefarious ends."^[56]

In October 2017 the African National Congress Women’s League described Mabulu as "mentally colonised artist" for a painting depicting then-presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in a sexual position while Zuma looks.

The Women's League said:^[57]

[The painting] is a desperate move by the white monopoly capital and their praise-singers, using a rented black painter to tarnish the image of these leaders hoping that it will stop the winding wheels of radical economic transformation.

Mabulu has achieved international recognition via museum exhibitions and participation at international fairs, and his works have been sold or offered through auction houses and galleries.^[58]

In addition to his gallery and museum representation, Mabulu’s participation in international residencies and the inclusion of his work in major institutional and private collections have contributed to his growing recognition in both African and global art markets.^[59]

• Studio interview / podcast with Mabulu (Unframed Podcast).^[1]
• Art Africa magazine interview/profile with Ayanda Mabulu.^[2]
• Van der Merwe, A. (2017). Ayanda Mabulu’s controversial art raises hard questions about freedom of expression. *The Conversation*, 24 April 2017.^[3]
• Mpofu, S. (2019). Pornographic intersections: race and genitalia in South African political art in the age of digital media, 25 September 2019.^[4]
• Mail & Guardian (2017). Mabulu’s brush strokes make SA squirm. 21 April 2017.
• Daily Maverick (2017). The man who paints power naked. 21 April 2017.
• Pauwels, M. Art as a Battleground for Struggles over Politics, Race… (2022, Journal article).^[5]
• Graham, L. Representing Marikana / essay in Interventions (2016).^[6]
• University of Pretoria / UPSpace — Du Preez (2015) — The Marikana massacre : seeing it all.^[7]
• Transgressive Performativities of Blackness … (2020).^[8]
• Diggit Magazine — When do the critics of Zuma cross the line? (22 April 2017)^[9]
• The De-Africanization of African Art: Towards Post-African Aesthetics (ResearchGate / 2019-2020)^[10]