In Luhambo (The Journey), Nthabiseng Kekana reflects on the experiences and transformations that have shaped her life, tracing her personal and spiritual journey from artist to traditional healer.

The exhibition features charcoal drawings, monotypes, drypoint prints and mixed-media textile works. Its title, Luhambo, means “the journey”, and for Kekana, that journey is still unfolding. Her work draws on African folktales, mythology, ancestral knowledge and the feminine figures of mother, healer and creator as she explores her identity and the person she is becoming.

Materials play an important role in telling this story. Raffia, earthy colours and layered textiles carry associations with memory and ancestral connections, while the marks and impressions of her drawings and prints suggest experiences that leave their traces over time.

The exhibition also reflects Kekana’s ongoing relationship with the David Krut Workshop. Over the past two years, she has collaborated with three printers — Roxy Kaczmarek, Jesse Shepstone and Kim-Lee Loggenberg-Tim – developing distinct bodies of work through different printmaking processes. Each collaboration has opened up new ways of translating her ideas into images.

For Kekana, Luhambo is a homecoming to herself. Through drawing, textiles and printmaking, she charts a journey shaped by personal experience, spiritual discovery and an evolving understanding of who she is.