Naledi Modupi is a visual artist from Johannesburg.
- Naledi Modupi is a visual artist from Johannesburg.
- She is an up and coming artist and is prospering in her career so far.
- She recently collaborated with Mr Price for a home décor range.
Meet Naledi Modupi, a 24-year-old visual artist born and raised in the east of Johannesburg.
“I am a visual artist who creates work to celebrate and embrace women and show the individuality and the beauty and power and strength that we all hold,” she describes her work.
Naledi’s love for visual arts goes back to her teenage days when she did arts as a subject in high school. During her schooling, she learned about many South African artists who were mostly white men. But, in one of her textbooks, she came across a prominent Black South African woman in the arts industry known as Mary Sibande who then inspired her to pursue arts as a career.
“I didn’t even know it could be a career most of my childhood,” Naledi states, explaining how before learning about Mary she had no influence in her vicinity and she did not consider art as a career. She thought she would be a teacher or accountant.
Even in varsity, Naledi studied towards a bachelor of commerce (BCom) in marketing. But, because she left her hometown and was exposed to more visual artists, she got motivated and did not let her dream for art die. She also believes social media played a great role in exposing her to other successful visual artists.
“Everything I know is stuff that I pick up as I go,” says the 24-year-old.
However, she believes that her qualification did help her break through the art industry.
“I studied BCom marketing management, which I also think plays a huge role in how my art has escalated [at] a pace that I want it to. It’s been easier for me to be able to achieve that because of the little business and marketing experience and knowledge I have.”
READ MORE | Fashion designer Nao Serati created clothing using car seat fabrics
One of Naledi’s latest projects entails a home collection with Mr Price.
She has created a home décor range that comprises pillows, baskets, blankets, framed artwork, tables and diffusers.
Explaining how the collaboration came about, Naledi says Mr Price Home reached out to her a year after her friend had their range released with Mr Price. She says she has been hopeful that she would also have her range and that it was part of her plans for 2024. Now that it has happened, she describes the feeling as “amazing”.
She says there was no specific brief from Mr Price and that all she had to do was create “beautiful things,” which she believes she excels in.
The freedom to create whatever she wanted made the experience of working with Mr Price “seamless”.
“I felt very seen and my work felt seen and respected,” says Naledi as she believes that most big companies tamper and change the vision of artists whenever they are collaborating, but it was not the case with Mr Price.
Naledi marks this project as one of her career highlights because it speaks to what she would love to achieve. She would love for her work to be incorporated into our everyday lives. She wants her work to be accessible by everyone, especially Black women and this collaboration permitted that.
She mentions that not having a visual arts qualification does bring some self-critique at times and she believes her work is not for art galleries yet. But she is satisfied with that as her main objective is to incorporate her art into our everyday lives.
For the younger generations who aspire to follow a similar career path, Naledi says “Create art as a form to express yourself not necessarily taking it on as a career. When you start treating it as a career it puts pressure on your work and what you are trying to say.”
She also encourages artists to share their work as much as they can.
