Edward Selematsela
Art in Johannesburg

Edward Selematsela is from the Limpopo province of South Africa and studied art and business at Eastside College and The University of South Africa.

In 1997 he received the merit of excellence award from the French cultural center in Pessac, Bordeaux, France. He had won several art competitions around gauteng, his intaglio relief art piece (The journey to travel) had earned him the first spot at black like us art competition which was sponsored by Mr Mayor Herman Mashaba and Deutsche Bank South Africa in 2011, and a Citadel the most improved artist 2006 manor gallery, and Webber Wentzel Bowens for improving the lives of youth through art. Art collectors as far as Dubai, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Namibia, USA, Colombia, Netherlands and England, have invested in his art. He is a full time artist, very much committed to his art, though he is a full time artist, he takes one day in a week to teach voluntarily children and youth art from disadvantaged background in Berea, Hillbrow Johannesburg, this is the (Little artist school) project that he started in 1995 with twenty students in Marshalltown, downtown, Johannesburg in an orphanage home, 1500 students have benefited from this project, sponsored by the Deutsche bank since 2004 till today. In 2006 Edward accompanied six of his prominent students to London, after they had won the Deutsche bank art award during William Kentridge’s urban age exhibition at Johannesburg art gallery, they had the opportunity to visit Tate gallery, National British art gallery, Tate modern, V&A, Shakespeare museum, South African high Commissioner’s house in Trafalgar square, Deutsche bank art collection London and other art related places. In 2011 Edward was one of the schools curator and facilitator at standard bank art gallery, teaching the public about the importance of saving water through a group of local Artists collection, the exhibition was called Water the delicate thread of life. Edward dedicates a large portion of his time mentoring former street children at the Little Artist School, which he founded. He has been teaching for about 17 years, and they now have premises at Barnato High School with 55 kids. As a result, in 2006 Deutshe Bank sent them to London to visit places like Tate Art Gallery, AVA, Shakespeare’s Museum, British Gallery, Tate Modern Art, and other museums around London. A small collection of some of the art works of the Little Artist students are featured below.