Every once in a while, an outrageous talent explodes on to the scene and dazzles with its sheer creative brilliance. Loyiso Mkize is such a man. Born in Butterworth and armed with a diploma in Graphic Design from CPUT in Cape Town, this young South African visual artist is making waves around the world with the surprising variety and quality of his art. Fine art and comic book illustrations are very different art forms, yet Loyiso in his short but already prolific career has proven himself a master of both. CAPTURING THE ESSENCE Loyiso only discovered his passion for painting portraits in his early twenties and his natural talent was immediately evident. Since then, his career in fine art portraits has taken off. He has been invited to exhibit his work throughout South Africa, in New York and Dakar; been commissioned to create artwork for a number of movies, including a Hollywood crime thriller starring Morgan Freeman, and commissioned to paint portraits of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu. His subjects, generally African, explore the complex nature that makes up modern man, his environment, predisposition, and culture. Loyiso focuses on the emotion, emphasising brush strokes on skin texture and the eyes. Finding the subject’s spirit and communicating that through the medium is an expression he has found his voice in. Moonlight Thando The Gentleman Tranquility AFRICAN SUPER HERO Loyiso honed his skills as an illustrator whilst working as head illustrator for the popular soccer comic book, Supa Strikas Entertainment, before launching his own visual arts company, Loyiso Mkize Art (Pty) Ltd company in 2013. His goal in starting his own business was to create proudly South African entertainment products and communications solutions. A few months later, in 2014, he developed and published the ?rst South African superhero comic book series, KWEZI, which is now the company’s ?agship product. The comic book quickly rose to popularity with new episodes being published in steady succession. EXPRESSION OF FREEDOM Loyiso’s work embodies the message of self-awareness, acknowledgment, strength and radical presence. His ability to create such a broad range of visual art carries with it an intention to communicate ideas that he ?nds most important in his life, the most prominent of which is preserving the African identity. It’s in this spirit that he hopes his work can create a platform for all of us to express our freedom. To view more of Loyiso’s work, visit www.kwezicomics.co.za Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYou must be logged in to post a comment.