Youngblood Africa

Youngblood Africa Youngblood Arts and Culture development started out as the CSI arm of UAL (Universal Africa Lines).
(503)

Youngblood is an arts and culture organization (NPO) that aims to be platform for artists from all genres to start off from or to continue from. We are based in a three storey gallery in the hip and happening Bree Street.

FIRST THURSDAYEMOTIONAL GROWTH“My artistic practice sits at the intersection of painting, illustration, and visual story...
03/09/2026

FIRST THURSDAY

EMOTIONAL GROWTH

“My artistic practice sits at the intersection of painting, illustration, and visual storytelling. I explore themes of identity, intimacy, emotional growth, rest, and our relationship with nature, using surreal and dreamlike imagery as my core language. I came to art and culture as a way to express myself and to protect my inner child. I was never particularly comfortable with words, yet I always had a lot to say. Making images became my way of communicating feelings and ideas that felt too complex or fragile to explain verbally.”

- Gavin Kendo

Poster art by gavin kendo
The Boy and The Peach Elephant
Acrylic on canvas
87x64 cm

NATASJA DAVIDSONARTIST STATEMENTNatasja has an instinct for giving forgotten materials a second life. She recycles, resu...
24/08/2026

NATASJA DAVIDSON

ARTIST STATEMENT

Natasja has an instinct for giving forgotten materials a second life. She recycles, resurrects and repurposes whatever captures her imagination, transforming the overlooked into something unexpected. When inspiration strikes, traditional linen and stretched canvas are abandoned in favour of discarded rolls of paper, which become processions of anonymous women, each quietly carrying her own story.

Working across mixed media, Natasja creates layered narratives through the interplay of texture, material and form. By blending and juxtaposing found objects with more traditional media, her work explores memory, transformation and the beauty of reinvention.

ZOLILE PETSHANEARTIST STATEMENT Zolile Petshane is one of South Africa’s most respected and revered abstract artists. Hi...
19/08/2026

ZOLILE PETSHANE

ARTIST STATEMENT

Zolile Petshane is one of South Africa’s most respected and revered abstract artists. His latest body of work, Brick by Brick, is among the most urgent and politically grounded of his career.

GDP is the gospel governments preach, but the numbers rarely reach the people. When states fail to create the conditions for genuine job creation, they borrow instead-from the World Bank and institutions like it- entering a cycle of debt that makes the original failure even harder to escape.

It is this structural failure that informs the paintings. Petshane turns the language of economics-its metrics, its promises, its silences-into visceral, layered abstraction. And then he looks elsewhere for the answer.

To the trader, the entrepreneur, the hustler-every person rebuilding the economy from the ground up, acknowledged or not.

Brick by brick.

To shame a language is to reach inside a person and wound something that was there before they knew themselves. Language...
18/08/2026

To shame a language is to reach inside a person and wound something that was there before they knew themselves. Language isn’t something you carry — it’s something you are. It is woven into how you think, how you remember, how you recognise yourself. The communities of the Cape Flats have lived with that wound for generations — the correction, the mockery, the quiet verdict that the way you speak marks you as less.

Painting is one answer to that. A slow one, by necessity — you stay with a face until you understand something about it that you couldn’t have said before you started. These twelve faces asked for that kind of staying. I painted them because I believe that kind of attention is itself a form of witness.

The Kaaps titles are not translations of what I saw. They are what the paintings said back to me when they were finished. – Ricky Joshua

FIRST THURSDAYPhenomenal WomanBY MAYA ANGELOUPretty women wonder where my secret lies.I’m not cute or built to suit a fa...
06/08/2026

FIRST THURSDAY

Phenomenal Woman
BY MAYA ANGELOU
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say,
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.

Poster art by Mbadja boy Nasheotwalwa 🇳🇦
Girl’s power
Mixed media on canvas
190 x 143 cm

STEPHANIE REITHARTIST STATEMENT I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. My heart is African, and my work is...
22/07/2026

STEPHANIE REITH

ARTIST STATEMENT

I have been an artist for as long as I can remember. My heart is African, and my work is often a reflection of it. I love the different cultures and styles of the tribes of Africa, and endeavour to capture these traditions before they are forgotten.

MARCEL HERHOLDTARTIST STATEMENT THIS IS NOT A KROKODOKULUSMarcel Herholdt lives and works in Greyton, a small village in...
21/07/2026

MARCEL HERHOLDT

ARTIST STATEMENT

THIS IS NOT A KROKODOKULUS

Marcel Herholdt lives and works in Greyton, a small village in the Overberg region near Cape Town. Self-taught, he has spent much of his adult life working in the art departments of film and television productions - a background that has sharpened his eye for visual storytelling, composition, and the power of iconography. His paintings bring that cinematic sensibility into the gallery, translated into an Afro-pop protest aesthetic that is bold, colourful, and uncompromising.

At the heart of Herholdt’s practice is a deep unease with the quiet erosion of personal freedom. His paintings take aim at the mechanisms of surveillance and control — CCTV cameras, algorithmic tracking, the steady cashless drift of modern commerce, and the soft coercions of government and corporate convenience — and ask, with genuine urgency: can any of it be trusted? His work resists the comfortable lie that safety and convenience are neutral gifts. The message, as he puts it, is simple: revolt, rebel, rethink.

Herholdt’s visual language is rich with recurring motifs, each carrying specific symbolic weight.
The skull is his signature — his tag, in the tradition of street and graffiti art. Dead fish suggest a crisis of faith. A rose, often straining towards an outstretched hand, represents freedom. A key refers to the choices we make. Palm trees, appearing in positive and negative pairs, speak to the integration of shadow and self. Together, these symbols populate a world Herholdt calls Club Cocomo: a fictional paradise park of lost dreams, broken promises, and the relentless human desire to belong somewhere good.

This Is Not a Krokodokulus is Marcel Herholdt’s second solo exhibition with WORLDART, following his debut show Welcome to Club Cocomo in August 2022. It will be presented downstairs at WORLDART and introduces new work that continues his exploration of resistance, freedom, and the mythology of Club Cocomo.

JESS HENRICHARTIST STATEMENT KINSHIP- from the series FARASFARAS, the Arabic word for horse, is an ongoing photographic ...
16/07/2026

JESS HENRICH

ARTIST STATEMENT

KINSHIP- from the series FARAS

FARAS, the Arabic word for horse, is an ongoing photographic project documenting remote horse cultures shaped by their own landscapes, histories, and traditions. It seeks to record the living relationships between people and horses before they are transformed or disappear entirely under the pressures of modernity.

The work in Lesotho forms the first chapter of this journey.
I chose the title Kinship because these images speak to a relationship that extends beyond utility or ownership. In the mountains of Lesotho, horse and rider exist in profound intimacy, travelling together, enduring the same weather, and depending on one another for survival.
Their connection is inherited and deeply embodied. The horse is not separate from daily life but woven into family and identity.

Shot while travelling on horseback with Basotho riders across the highlands, this series is not intended as an ethnographic record or romantic nostalgia, but as an attempt to witness a culture from within. The Basotho pony, a small, resilient, and sure-tooted creature, has shaped life in these mountains for generations, carrying people, goods, and stories across terrain that is largely inaccessible by road.

At its heart, Kinship is a meditation on companionship between species: on trust, mutual dependence, and the quiet understanding that develops over a lifetime shared together. It asks what is lost when ancient relationships between humans, animals, and the landscape begin to fade, and what it means to preserve not simply traditions, but ways of being in the world.

This exhibition marks the beginning of FARAS, a wider body of work that will extend across Africa and beyond, tracing horse cultures that continue to endure at the edges of a rapidly changing world.

KABELO MOSOLAARTIST STATEMENT Echoes of my AncestorsMy work is rooted in culture, spirituality, and storytelling. Growin...
15/07/2026

KABELO MOSOLA

ARTIST STATEMENT

Echoes of my Ancestors

My work is rooted in culture, spirituality, and storytelling. Growing up in a rural Sotho community, l became fascinated by the traditions, rituals, and experiences that shape identity and connect generations. Through painting and ceramics, I explore themes of ancestry, memory, belonging, and the emotional realities of African life.

I believe that every person carries a story, and my work seeks to give visibility to those stories while preserving cultural narratives that are often overlooked. Portraiture plays a central role in my practice, allowing me to capture both the strength and vulnerability of my subjects.
I am interested in the ways facial expressions, symbols, and materials can communicate experiences that words alone cannot.

My practice is increasingly focused on material research, traditional craft knowledge, and the relationship between art, design, and everyday life. Drawing inspiration from African textile traditions, spirituality, and cultural heritage, I aim to create work that bridges the past and the present while encouraging dialogue about identity, memory, and cultural preservation.

Ultimately, my work is a celebration of heritage and humanity, inviting viewers to reflect on their own histories and the stories that connect us all.

Herbie Tsoaeli: BackYard Sextet with Community VoicesAfrikan Time has always sought to tap into natural spaces and place...
08/07/2026

Herbie Tsoaeli: BackYard Sextet with Community Voices

Afrikan Time has always sought to tap into natural spaces and places in search of sound, rhythm, and musical expression. BackYard Sextet with Community Voices will serve as our point of departure as we journey through different eras of music, exploring the past, present, and future through the pages of a living musical story.

Taking the stage will be an extraordinary BackYard Sextet, Steven Sokuyeka , Buddy Wells ,Keegan Steenkamp, Lonwabo Mafani,Tefo Mahola and the Vocalists, Soisoi Gqeza, Zee Xaba and Thandi Gqiba, each bringing a unique voice that resonates throughout the ever-evolving Afrikan Time music chapters!

Herbie Tsoaeli presents the concert in support of the growth, preservation, and development of music within our communities.

Through this gathering of artists, we celebrate creativity, cultural diversity, and the power of music to connect generations and inspire the future.

Link in bio

FIRST THURSDAY“I believe that every person carries a story, and my work seeks to give visibility to those stories while ...
02/07/2026

FIRST THURSDAY

“I believe that every person carries a story, and my work seeks to give visibility to those stories while preserving cultural narratives that are often overlooked. Portraiture plays a central role in my practice, allowing me to capture both the strength and vulnerability of my subjects. I am interested in the ways facial expressions, symbols, and materials can communicate experiences that words alone cannot.” - Kabelo Mosola

Poster art by Kabelo Mosola
ancestral echoes
Oil on canvas
140 x 140 cm

Address

BeautifuLL Life, 70/74 Bree Street
Cape Town
8001

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 09:00 - 17:00
Saturday 10:00 - 14:00

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Youngblood Africa posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category