Katlego Tlabela (b. 1993, Tshwane, RSA) is a multidisciplinary artist whose paintings reimagine luxury as a form of cultural reclamation. The political and personal merges through Tlabela’s work, with pride and defiance. Since 2020, Tlabela’s practice has focused on painting, depicting fictional scenes of the Black Elite, often paying tribute to historically prominent Black artists within his works. His practice is informed by his ongoing research of African master painters, featuring both renowned artists and historically overlooked outsiders.
Tlabela majored in printmaking at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, RSA. His mixed media work engages viewers in dialogue with race and resistance. Deliberately challenging stereotypical representations of the suffering and impoverished Black body, Tlabela depicts Black subjects at leisure in luxurious domestic settings; painting narratives of aspirational and attainable prosperity.