The Man Behind the Gaze

“I paint what I feel. 
What I know. 
What I never want us to forget.”

- Nelson Makamo

This is not a biography.
This is a pulse.

It begins in Modimolle, Limpopo, South Africa’s quiet earth. A boy watches, sketches, dreams. His canvas is not a gallery; it is a school wall, a scrap of paper, the air around him. Long before the world knew his name, Nelson Makamo had already begun the work of remembering.

Now, more than 16 years since his first exhibition, that remembering has become something bigger:
a movement.
a ministry.
a map of what it means to see the soul of a continent and stay tender enough to paint it.

Photograph by Trevor Stuurman

Artwork by Nelson Makamo

Makamo doesn’t just paint portraits.
He paints presence.

His acrylics, charcoal, monotypes, watercolours, oil paint, screenprint, lithography, Collage,  and sculpture speak in glances and silences. Most often children's eyes, wide, fierce, dreaming. They’re not subjects.
They’re signals.
Reminders.
Reflections of who we’ve been, who we’re becoming.

You’ll find his work in the homes of everyday people and the halls of presidents, in private collections and public hearts. Each piece a story made visible, each stroke a meditation on humanity.

“My work is inspired by my existence, by the fact that I can wake up every day and see the movement around me.”

Photographs by Trevor Stuurman

“My inspiration is the laughter outside my window.
The stillness of a child's stare.
The rhythm of Joburg taxis.
The rituals of Limpopo mornings.”

Makamo draws not from tradition alone, but from vibration.
From Dumile Feni’s urgency.
Van Gogh’s honesty.
Picasso’s bravery.

Photographs by Trevor Stuurman

But mostly, from us.
From the way a grandmother holds her breath when she prays.
From the echo of children running barefoot through dust.
From the dance between light and shadow in Black life.

His work doesn’t replicate, it translates.

Makamo’s influence flows far beyond gallery walls.
He’s exhibited in South Africa, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, England, and Scotland, to name a few. His work reclaims the African child not as a symbol of pity, but of power, an architect of the limitless.

From his Time Magazine cover to designing the Betway Cup trophy, to art installations in SAA lounges curated by Discovery, Makamo continues to put African vision in motion.

Photograph by Porsche SA

Cover for Times Magazine

He doesn’t speak loudly, but his work echoes.

While the world celebrates the success of African artists, let's remember those who came before and stood at the edge of the unknown, testing, trialing, tearing through silence to carve a path.

Makamo has often been that first.
The sacrificial visionary.
The one who dares to show up before the blueprint is drawn, knowing the work might be misunderstood, knowing it might never be credited, but doing it anyway.
So those who come next can walk freely.

This, too, is his art.
This page, like Nelson, won’t tell you everything. It doesn’t want to. It wants you to slow down.
To breathe.
To look, not scroll.

Because Makamo isn’t here to perform.
He’s here to bear witness. To awaken something.
To open a door. To let you remember how feelings look.

So walk gently.
There is a revolution unfolding, one brushstroke at a time.

Want to walk through one of Nelson’s past exhibitions or be first to hear about what’s next?

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Phone: +27 72 505 0917
Email: info@nelsonmakamo.africa.com
Socials: @nelsonmakamo

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