“Celebration of the Higher Self” and “If Music Gets You Choked Up This is the Tree and the Rope”
Artist Statement
I create one-of-one, high-quality, thought-provoking contemporary art to raise awareness about social issues within the African diaspora and how those issues resonate to the rest of the world. My preferred mediums include but are not limited to acrylic paints, warthog tusks, and ostrich and crocodile leathers. I paint freehand from start until finish, without the need to draw background sketches as a guideline for how my painting ought to look in the end.
Referred to by the masses as “The Artivist,” Mondli Kunene is known for creating one-of-one, high-quality, thought-provoking contemporary African art to raise awareness about social issues within the African diaspora and how those issues resonate to the rest of the world. His choice of medium is acrylic paints on Masonite board mixed with leather and warthog tusks.
Mondli was mentored by the late South African artist Speelman Mahlangu. Mondli “The Artivist” Kunene received a B.Ed. from the University of Johannesburg, and after a decade of working within the education sector, he left in 2018 to create art full-time under his registered company Mondli Art Projects.
In 2016, he won first prize for a film he featured in at the Joburg Film Festival, courtesy of the Gauteng Film Commission. He has been commissioned to paint huge murals in Sharpeville to commemorate former president Nelson Mandela and Albertina Sisulu’s centennial celebration. In 2019, Design Indaba chose him as one of fifty emerging SA creatives to currently look out for, and he exhibited with a group at the Artscape in Cape Town.
In 2022, he was nominated and awarded the honorary award for the Theatre and Arts category at the Forty Under 40 Africa Awards, which took place in Accra, Ghana. In 2023, he was featured as Builder of the Month by BuildRSA, an entity that recognises hard- and smarter-working youths in SA that build the county with their expertise; Mondli represented the visual arts and creativity aspect of things.
His artwork has been acquired by the Art Bank of South Africa, politicians, athletes local and abroad, people in the entertainment industry, and young professionals, including affluent individuals and those in private sectors. He recently made history by being not only the first person ever in the history of the Midvaal Local Municipality to have his artwork acquired and hung in the Council Chamber but also by being invited to unveil his work and address the whole council, who talked about the MONDLIART® they were exposed to every time they were in the Chamber.
Mondli has been featured in local and international news and online publications and has been included in local and international group exhibitions that raise awareness about the socially contentious issue of elephant and rhino poaching (2020 Eco Awareness Gallery in India). He has also been in a group exhibition in Canada (2021 Liminal Gallery).
In 2022, he exhibited at the Cape Town International Convention Centre during Decorex Africa and won the Brandy Innovation Challenge. In 2024, he exhibited at THE GRAPA in Valencia, Spain, and was honoured in Kazan, Russia, for the idea of using creativity and technology to empower the youth in the Vaal area. In 2025, he was nominated to be part of the Visual Arts Cluster of South Africa, a nonprofit company powered by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture. Recently, he was a contributing author in The Gerald Kraak Anthology Vol. V titled We Shall Remain, which features visual artists, photographers, and poets from all over Africa.
In addition, Mondli mentors younger visual artists and is working on establishing an art hub that youth in his area can benefit largely from.
Instagram: @Mondliart
Twitter: @Mondliart1
TikTok: @Mondliart1
