Billy Mandindi
Without doubt Billy Mandindi was one of the most exciting artists to have emerged through the community arts sector in the 1980s. Viewed by some contemporaries as a teen prodigy, Mandindi’s precocious talent is clearly visible in early works such as Man amongst men (plate 241) where he skilfully juxtaposed divergent modes of drawing (naturalistic, expressionistic, comic, and iconic) with vivid allusions to imperialism, oppression and resistance. Similarly, African Madonna (1986) (plate 240) seamlessly blends conventions derived from the Italian Renaissance with symbols of indigenous power as well as economic exploitation. Read More…
