Phumzile Buthelezi is an emerging artist whose tactile visual aesthetic has set her work apart.

Her informal training at a very young age and other self taught skills allowed her to create her own visual narrative.

Buthelezi has come a long way since, forging an individual identity as a black female artist in contemporary South African Arts. She joined Artist Proof Studio in 2005 for NQF4 Product Design & Development, where she realised her passion for printmaking in her first year.

She has developed a diverse sensibility, rendering works in a number of different mediums. She was a crafter for as long as she can remember which she inherited from both parents; her mother the seamstress, and her father the handyman.

Her printing plates and sculptural work are usually a combination of both art and craft; found and bought materials. This is visible in her passionate exploration of material that is stimulated by texture.

Buthelezi cuts the prints into different shapes and sizes guided by her preparatory drawings and studies. She then stitches them together using a manual sewing machine, giving to life innovative imagery and complex visual texture.

Her present work are amalgamations of prints collected during her print work process and are geared toward breaking conventional practice in the industry by continuing to reflect on narratives of black women, through her own experiences.

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