SBYA Visual Arts winner, Nyakallo Maleke’s mark-making practice becomes a journey
When I speak about drawing I cannot separate it from writing as practice and as a space. I started thinking about both practices as being extensions of each other. Drawing as a form of writing, as a practice of collecting narratives, as a way of mapping oneself in relationship to wherever one goes and trying to translate that onto the space of a drawing page. One was constantly rewriting themselves in locations that were not permanent while thinking about these influences that were also talking about their relationship to the empty page — the empty page as a space of visibilizing and invisibilizing. I treated my drawings in the same way.
Johannesburg-based Nyakallo Maleke is both an artist and a writer, whose work finds its footing in an expanded idea of drawing regarded as a device to tell stories about walking, movement, and space. Her drawings are expressed through a variety of mediums, disciplines, and techniques — taking shape as performances, sound-based works, installations, sculptures, and prints.
Her more recent works are rooted in materiality, combining traditional drawing techniques with detailed embroidered stitching and more unusual materials, such as wax paper. Maleke’s drawings become journeys onto themselves: mapping migration, investing in vulnerability and spatial memory.
“I started thinking through drawing as the first point of departure for grounding oneself in a new space, for grounding my practice and for processing in more tangible and material ways, what it was to constantly be moving, to constantly have to be read as different or other, making sense of my own movements in the public space, the conversations. I was doing a lot of mapping work around diverse encounters that my body was receptive and reacting to — while still trying to feel at home physically. The process of mapping those moments was also a space for me in my practice to ‘relearn how to draw’ ultimately finding my way through unfamiliarity, shock and difference, language and making… Drawing gave me the opportunity to undo and relearn, to edit and rewrite my own perceptions and inhibitions about myself: how one builds and maps their connections in visceral and intuitive ways, and it helped me to understand what that voice looked like and what it felt like.”
Maleke’s most recent exhibition took place in Zurich, Switzerland in September 2024 at annex14 galerie. The two-person show also featured work by Swiss painter Sylvain Croci-Torti. The show aimed to pair different creative disciplines through the process of engagement — and conceptually through the use of language and abstraction.
Titled ‘Radical Stories’, the ‘Radical’ part of the title spoke to Sylvain’s work which finds its footing in minimalist and deconstructivist form and expression. The ‘Stories’ referenced Nyakallo’s work, grounded in storytelling, imagination, and narration using drawing and materiality as its vehicle.
‘Making Sense of the Same Story’ was a solo exhibition of her work presented at Bag Factory Artist’s Studio, curated by Boitumelo Makousu. The body of work dug deeper into the nature of drawing as an important medium to evoke meaning that can transcend language. The exhibition acted as a layered journey investigating the act of creating a drawing.
Drawing in the show became a different outlook towards processing, understanding, and articulating information. The exhibition space made room for an interactive experience that connected materiality (the act of drawing) and collective happenings. Expressing vulnerability, Nyakallo’s offering transmuted material, action, and feeling.
The show inspired viewers and actors alike to express emotion, thoughts, and observations through mark-making, drawing, play, and reading. Recognition of these acts became a meaningful way to explore the self and one’s connection to the world.
With every line drawn and each stroke of her brush, Nyakallo laid bare deep emotion — championing the real connection between an artist and her canvas (or paper). Opening a dialogue between hand and soul, she experimented with technique and medium. Viewers were asked to move beyond the comfortable, stimulating a connection between information and the act of making.
‘Making Sense of the Same Story’ created a cathartic experience, strengthening personal connection and the experience of being human.
“The award and the honour is an incredible recognition to receive. It means one should continue trusting their imagination and intuition creatively. To continue listening to an internal voice always. It also means that hard work pays off because I did not start recently, this has really been a long full circle journey since 2015. This year marks 10 years of consistently trying. This opportunity has proven that it is possible to make something from nothing, to rebuild and to not be afraid of trying different things out until you find what lands best to communicate what it is that you want to say or do. Coming from a conceptual practice and shifting in the last 3 years commercially is not easy, it takes discipline and it can happen that one gets lost in the glitz of the moment. Moving forward, this means going back to basics and rewriting a new, joyful chapter.”
— Nyakallo Maleke, on winning the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts 2025
