Khalipha The Great

Mixed Media - Acrylic, Ink, Charcoal, Gold-Leaf

“Even in silence, the soul continues to search for itself.”

Artist Biography

Tumisang Khalipha (b.1994, Mahikeng) is a Johannesburg-based contemporary visual artist whose practice spans around painting, sculpture & photography. Raised in Katlehong township, his work is rooted in his upbringing - drawing from South Africa's shifting urban environments, spiritual memory, and the lingering residue of neglect.

After studying printmaking at Edition Vary and Artist Proof Studio, he developed a powerful visual language guided by transformation, destruction, and restoration. Khalipha's works often merge charcoal, gold leaf, pigment, and water-based mediums to explore fractured landscapes, human vulnerability, and endurance.

His work has been exhibited at The Gallery at Steyn City (A Moment of Silence, 2024), Alliance Française Pretoria (Babusisiwe Abamsulwa, 2024), Stephan Welz & Co, and the Capital Art Fair Tshwane (2025). He has collaborated with cultural figures such as Priddy Ugly and Bontle Modiselle, and contributed to public and mural-based projects including Sonwaro Coffee's showcase in Milan, Italy (2023).

Khalipha is currently an independent artist, and continues to activate his practice through his annual studio event A Studio Gathering With Khalipha - nurturing dialogue between collectors, creatives, community, and the city.

Artist Statement

My practice explores the relationship between human experience and the forces that shapes our inner and outer lives. How what we encounter, endure and absorb becomes part of who we are or rather become.

Working through drawing and sculpting on paper with charcoal, watercolor, pigments, gold-leaf, acrylic paint and water as a medium - I use the materiality of the work to search through these experiences and understand what life leaves within us.

As the work continues to unfold, it moves towards being rooted in ourselves, seeking serenity and peace, and creating a space for healing, balance and a deeper sense of being.

"Gopolang, Re Tshegofaditswe."