Spotlight: South Africa’s Mark Modimola is Creating From the Spirit

In our 'Spotlight' series, we highlight the work of photographers, visual artists, multimedia artists, and more who are producing vibrant, original work.

In our latest piece, we spotlight award-winning South African visual artist Mark Modimola. The Pretoria-born artist has made it his mission to follow his spiritual instincts and create work that taps into the mutually beneficial relationship between humanity and nature. A contender of the Fulbright program, Modimola’s work centers on the natural — an easy task for an African artists as he says, “Nature has taught us innovation and we nurture its raw vibrancy into the stories we tell through our creations.”

In 2021, Modimola and a team of fellow South African artists and writers produced a graphic novel titled All Rise, which aimed to highlight the stories of South Africans who struggled for freedom – a narrative all too familiar. The artist favors curating artistic experiences that offer healing to its viewers, with an emphasis on color and what it can arouse. “Color,” he says, “Is a sensory experience that vibrates in the spiritual body through frequency.” Modimola recently shared his work with Seattle, Washington’s Fred Hutch Cancer Center where he was granted the opportunity to channel his healing work with a community hungry for vitality and expression.

We spoke with the visual artist about the human desire to connect to land, our history, and ourselves through creative expression.

The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

When did you decide to become an artist?

I don't think I decided to become an artist – I sort of accepted that I was. Perhaps when I first drew, but also it could've been after I sold my first drawing. For me, I've practiced forms of creating all my life and more recently I've been referred to as an artist and have affirmed myself as such.

What's your medium of choice? Why?

Clay, flora and charcoal – natural mediums – have become attractive and I've integrated them into my works. The hues they produce feel more real. I enjoy the tactile quality of natural materials. The mediums carry a sensual quality that connects one to land and source as they bring the image into being.

The process of creating has become a spiritual and healing practice that couldn't live on a single platform or be restricted by technology. In a few ways, it feels like a resistance and revival of ancestral work.

What are the central themes in your work?

I would say: Our connection to nature and the land, The African Identity, Healing, Culture and our History.

Can you talk about your use of colors?

I identify with colors that harmonize and accentuate my images. Color is a sensory experience that vibrates in the spiritual body through frequency. It has the ability to affect mood, psyche and consciousness, so I am interested in embedding messages within color, creating and accessing neural pathways, and guiding experiences with colors.

Colors have a spiritual quality to them that correlates to our experiences. Their existence in nature is worth noting as they exist in perpetual harmony. Their existence in relation to time and light are also of interest. The intensity, frequency and distance of light affects colors, in turn affecting the viewer. The prevalence of blue in my work is of special interest as it is sparsely distributed, illusionary and vibrates on a scale that has healing qualities. It appears as the sky, and water, both of which represent majestic force.

What do you believe sets African artists apart from the rest of the world?

We are close to nature. Nature has taught us innovation and we nurture it's raw, vibrancy into the stories we tell through our creations. We are spiritual beings as well as physical, as Africans we are close to our source so there is an immediacy to our creations that drives our culture.

What's something you wish you were told at the beginning of your journey?

A friend of mine recently told me, "Many people will not like your work, they might be in awe, they might love your work, but they may also not understand it. None of that should matter because you are on your own journey, you have your own voice that has purpose and as long as you live in that, nothing else matters."

Images courtesy of South African visual artist Mark Modimola.

Images courtesy of South African visual artist Mark Modimola.

Images courtesy of South African visual artist Mark Modimola.