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David Koloane has been a subject of one of the books from the TAXI Art Book series. Koloane looks with a lively and perceptive eye at the bustling urban environment that has shaped his works, with a particular focus on the complexities of the South African urban landscape.

South African painter David Nthubu Koloane is an artist who has exhibited his work internationally. Born in Alexandria, Johannesburg, Koloane received his art training at the Bill Ainslie Studio from 1974 to 1977. In 1977, he co-founded an art gallery in Johannesburg. During1982 and 1983 he was the Head of Fine Arts at the Federative Union of Black Artists (FUBA); FUBA acts as an agency for Black artists, creating an awareness of their work in South Africa and other foreign markets, while providing classes in music, singing, the plastic arts, and theatre for over 3,000 young people per month.

Koloane has participated in the Thupelo workshops in Johannesburg and Triangle Artists Workshop in New York. A recipient of a British Council Scholarship, Koloane was also awarded a diploma in Museum Studies from the University of London in 1985. From 1986 to 1987 he was the curator of the FUBA Gallery. Most recently, he curated the South African section in the exhibition Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London as part of Africa 95 Festival of Arts.

Koloane's work has been shown in South Africa, Botswana, France, United States, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. He has participated in many solo exhibitions as well as group shows. Koloane's work is included in museums and private collections. A reflective and well-published writer, Koloane has written on issues pertaining to Black South African art and the racism in the South African art world. He has also been outspoken about the difficulty in obtaining an art education in South Africa; particularly, he laments the lack of emphasis on art in Black schools and communities. Committed to the visual art world, Koloane's moving and political art reflects a personal struggle to illuminate the experiences of Black South Africans to the world.
 

Available works

Gerald Tabata (b.1975) attended the Thupelo International Programme, Cape Town, South Africa in 2005.  Tabata’s history places him firmly within the framework of his artworks speaking to place, time and social politics. Whether waiting for a taxi, walking down the street, or waiting for the world to turn, Tabata captures these moments like a visual story-teller or documenter.
 

The subjects that people his canvases, although framed by circumstances of poverty, carry on about their business of life; while some of the figures have become reduced to an anonymous symbol, they are not a caricature. The subjects do not engage with the viewer, in many instances the subject has their back turned, or is walking away, out of the picture frame, excluding the viewer from the narrative of their life.  Tabata states, “As  artists  we stand  for  the people, we are  the  voice  of  the  masses, we  cannot  keep  quiet  or  pretend  things  are  ok  whilst  they  are  not. We  should  expose  poverty  and  make  it  our  responsibility  to  let  the  world  know  our  backyard problems.”
 

Working in a refined, painterly technique with a thoughtful use of colour, Tabata is concerned primarily with evoking the mood and atmosphere of the township scenes synonymous to African culture. Critics have commented that his work has the touch of Rembrandt; with seductive impasto paint he sculpts figures using colour sparingly. Gerald has found himself a studio in Observatory, Cape Town where he lives out his childhood dream of being an artist.