'My whole life I live in Dube, a part of Soweto. These images of the streets, markets, the ordinary people and the shebeens return in my collages.’
Born in 1965, Nkosana Dominic Tshabangu attended the Funda Centre in Johannesburg, where he also qualified as a teacher. Tshabangu went on to win the Bertrams V.O. Art of Africa Award and was subsequently offered a studio in the famous Bag factory in Newtown, Johannesburg. He combines his painting with a job as a layout artist with Pace Magazine. In his work Tshabangu tries to capture daily life and historical events in a journalistic manner. In his collage paintings he uses pictures and pages from magazines and includes found objects like cloth and corrugated card board. His works have a mosaic atmosphere and are quite colourful. Tshabangu tells short stories: scenes from the illegal bars; shebeen queen , how hostel dwellers have to live and how hard work gives little reward. Dutch critics compared his depictions with that of Jan Steen and Vincent van Gogh. Tshabangu has participated in exhibitions all over the world. He was invited to stay in the Thami Mnyele Foundation’s studio in 1997.