Karabo Poppy Moletsane is a South African illustrator, street artist and graphic designer based in Johannesburg. Inspired by the African aesthetic, Karabo counts Google, Nike, Calvin Klein and Netflix among her clients. Her illustrations dance with pattern, bold expressive lines and irregular type all rendered in unconventional color combinations, and we wanted them on WePresent. Karabo spoke to us about growing up, her zine Sho’t Left and how by creating her art in the streets of South Africa, she succeeds in making her work accessible to the people that inspire it.
Karabo’s illustrations dance with pattern, bold expressive lines and irregular type all rendered in unconventional color combinations: from neon greens to oranges to deep reds. “I choose to use colors that echo an air of Afrofuturism,” she says. Organic tapered line work adds a textured effect to her illustrations.
Her characters are all stylized with a geometric nose, swollen eyes and wild swirls in their hair. They’re everyday people she encounters on the streets of Johannesburg, where she’s now based. “People that I feel embody a contemporary African aesthetic,” she says. “People that show the diversity and hybridity of our country.”
Often Karabo’s characters will be illuminated by a halo behind their heads. “I see everyday Africans as the saints, heroes or sacred figures of the African aesthetic,” she explains. “I choose to celebrate and honor these individuals the same way Byzantine artists would honour saints, heroes or sacred figures in their icons.”
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