Esther Mahlangu
b. 1935, South Africa
Dr Esther Mahlangu is globally acclaimed for her bright and bold abstract paintings with vivid, geometric patterns that are rooted in Ndebele artistic tradition, a South African community.
She was a disruptor from an early age, becoming the first person to reimagine Ndebele visual artistic tradition, historically used for decorating houses, on painting media like canvas.
Dr Mahlangu has spent more than seven decades practicing her technique and has traveled extensively to collaborate with the world's most respected museums, galleries, curators, art fairs, celebrities, and global brands. These high-profile collaborations have generated much positive criticism and other exposure, and Dr. Mahlangu has developed an almost pop icon status of her own with a strong following among the celebrity crowd who have acquired her work for their collections (Oprah Winfrey, Usher, John Legend, Trevor Noah, David Bowie and Iman, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, Black Coffee, and others).
Although part of a cultural tradition, Esther Mahlangu has radically changed the media and techniques used. In addition to using industrial pigments and colors, the artist has applied these lines and geometric patterns to new surfaces, including sculptures, ceramics, automobiles, and even airplanes.In 1991 she became the first woman and first African to participate in the BMW Art Car Collection alongside other prominent figures such as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein, and Frank Stella.