I was invited back to Joburg to paint the other side of the Madiba mural
The Springbok represents us as a nation and the river reflects ourselves and our community. Now that Mandela has passed, we are looking into our reflection and assessing our Ubuntu in the past, present and future¨.
FREDDYSAM The artwork of Cape Town based street artist FREDDY SAM
Reflection
Freedom Day mural
Mural to commemorate 20 years of Democracy in South Africa
Cape Town
2014
Thailand meditation retreat
I was privileged to be invited to attend a artistic mediation retreat on an island south of Thailand hosted by the Peace Revolution organization.
The retreat included 24 artist from around the world
Each day we practiced 4 hours meditation guided by two teaching monks accompanied by 2 hours of lectures on Dharma (Wisdom) and the rest of the day free for art practice.
At the end of 2 weeks we packed up what artwork we had made to be exhibited in Bangkok.
I created a series of 7 paintings titled ‘Peace is a journey’.
Madiba mural
I AM BECAUSE WE ARE
I was humbled by the invitation to paint a 40 Meter tall (10 story) Nelson Mandela mural in the east city of Johannesburg commissioned by the Maboneng precinct as a gift to the city in memory of this giant of a man.
The mural is inspired by Madiba’s definition of ‘Ubuntu’ which is; ‘You cannot be human all by yourself’.
I chose to paint the iconic image of him boxing as he believed all were equal in the ring. Also this wall is not to far from the rooftop where this image was taken.I was so honored when permission was granted to me to paint the mural using the image by Bob Gosani copywrite by the BAHA foundation.
The mural took me 4 days to complete in 2013 just after Madiba’s passing.And I almost completed it on the day of his funeral,with only a few touch ups to do the storms and winds came down and the window washer broke and so completion was delayed to 2014.
I am truly inspired by the legacy of Madiba forever grateful and motivated to continue living to achieve his vision.
I am because we are
Photos by Bheki Dube and Myself.
Elephant Monday
ELEPHANT MONDAY
A2 screen print
Fabriano cotton paper
Edition of 25 with hand detail.
Price: R1000 or 100$
ColourIkamva
Please take a look ,like and share a new project I co founded.
http://www.colourikamva.co.za
ColourIkamva is an organisation that works to re-imagine the learning experience in disadvantages schools through;
1.
The physical transformation of the learning environment, co-created with students and educators, giving them a strong sense of pride and ownership over their space
2.
Personal-development workshops, promoting innovative and creative thinking that can foster positive habits to sustain the transformation and explore art as a tool for self-empowerment.
3.
An academic study where we aim to prove the value of an inspiring, uplifting environment on learner outcomes.
Colour Ikageng school transformation from ColourIkamva on Vimeo.
Atlanta for Living Walls 2013
[I AM BECAUSE WE ARE]
Inspired by Nelson Mandelas reference to the UBUNTO philosophy; “We can not be human all alone”
Philedelphia for The Philedelphia Mural Art program 2013
Collaboration with the art mentorship program.
Rochester NY for Wall Therapy
See all the walls at http://wall-therapy.com/
Nepal for Kolor Kathmandu
More about Kolor Kathmandu here:
http://kolorkathmandu.sattya.org/
NY rooftop
Quick rooftop in NY
Istanbul for Muralist festival
Kadikoy Istanbul for Muralist fetival
Istanbul for the GLOBAL POWER SHIFT CONFERENCE
At the Technical University of Istanbul
For http://globalpowershift.org/
Title:
‘We are the trees,our leaves our voices falling to the earth.”
THE COLOUR PROJECT
I am on a 4 month travel , research ,painting expedition /adventure.
Follow the project and my Tumblr for info and updates.
http://thecolourproject.tumblr.com/
&
http://freddysam.tumblr.com/
YOUR STREET
/A WORD OF ART in partnership with our bestest friends GreenPop were just notified that we are one of the winners of the Design Indaba; Your Street Challange http://www.designindaba.com/projects/your-street
We will be using the money to transform the Greenpop Nursery on Mountain Rd Woodstock,with a mural,art installations and a public jungle jim/tree house .
This is me and Misha of Greenpop receiving the prize form the Mayor
WWF
For WWF to promote Earth hour I was invited to paint 2 murals ,1 for JHB and 1 for Cape Town
This was my first time using all acrylic and no spray
(And the last time i will use sprays)
I hosted a workshop with a group of kids in each city to inspire the artwork
In CT we exhibited all the kids art and projected them over my mural for Earth hour
CT mural was in collaboration with Selah (CT) and REMED (MADRID)
Video by Rowan Pybus coming soon
JHB mural
Image Freddy Sam
CT mural
Images by Freddy Sam
Artist in res
Over the last 3 years i have hosted over 35 artist in residency from around the world with my /A WORD OF ART project.
The last few months have been some very special artists:
JANUARY-
GAIA (BALTIMORE)
JAZ (BUENOS AIRES)
KNOW HOPE (TEL AVIV)
All images from the project here http://www.acrylicwalls.tumblr.com
FEBRUARY-
REMED (MADRID)
http://remed.es/web/
MARCH-
AEC INTERNSIKAZKI (UKRAIN)
See his works here:
http://www.juxtapoz.com/street-art/new-walls-and-painting-by-aec-in-south-africa
NEXT UP-
APRIL
TROY LOVEGATES (CANADA)
Ways of Seeing
‘WAYS OF SEEING’ JAN 24 - MARCH 9TH 2013 - The result of a month long painting project in Cape Town and Johannesburg curated by Ricky Lee Gordon aka Freddy Sam (Cape Town) with international artists in residence KNOW HOPE (Tel Aviv), Gaia (NY), and Franco JAZ Fasoli (Buenos Aires) . TRAVEL BLOG: http://www.acrylicwalls.tumblr.com PROJECT SPONSORED BY: The Maboneng precinct, The Woodstock Exchange and /A WORD OF ART. .
View my works in the Catalog online here: http://www.a-word-of-art.co.za/exhibition-space/past-exhibitions/2013-exhibitions/ways-of-seeing/
See great reviews of the project here:
http://blog.vandalog.com/2013/01/acrylic-walls-a-love-letter-to-south-africa/
and
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/2013/01/21/acrylic-walls-gaia-jaz-know-hope-freddy-sam-in-s-africa/
Below images by Matt Ginsburg
2014 Cape Town Design Capital
This morning I was invited to be on the curatorial panel for the Cape Town World Design Capital 2014!
I am honored!
I promise to dedicate myself to doing a good job and only vote for cool stuff that actually benefits us as a society!!
Design for social change gets my vote!
The primary objectives of the Curatorial Panel will be to:
• to assess and review proposals
• develop a dynamic programme
• assist in making connections
• make recommendations to the WDC2014 CEO and Board
The WDC 2014 Curatorial Panel will play an important role in achieving the WDC 2014 Vision of building social inclusion, reconnecting the City in structure and in spirit, and repositioning Cape Town for the global knowledge economy.
The WDC 2014 Curatorial Panel will consist of 10 - 15 members, who will work in different work streams and will include individuals with the following expertise:
• Design practitioners and educators (from the full range of disciplines)
• Community development practitioners
• City/province planners and process managers
• Creative and innovative thinkers and doers
• Dreamers and visionaries
• Networkers and connectors
• Business leaders
• … and some pragmatists too
A C R Y L I C W A L L S
Excited about this current painting project I am curating.
Curated by me, Freddy Sam (Cape Town) with international artists in residence KNOW HOPE (Tel Aviv), Gaia (NY), Franco JAZ Fasoli (Buenos Aires)
Johannesburg: Dec 23 - 29 / 2012
Cape Town: Dec 29 / 2012 - Jan 30 / 2013
WALLS / TRAVEL / COMMUNITY / ART / EXHIBITION
Exhibition opens at /A WORD OF ART Jan 23 and runs till March 10
/A WORD OF ART - 66 Albert Rd ,Woodstock Cape Town.
Project sponsored by:
The Maboneng precinct, The Woodstock Exchange and /A WORD OF ART.
Follow the project here:
http://acrylicwalls.tumblr.com/
Soweto in Juxtapoz
During http://i-art-joburg.com/ which I curated with Andpeople we spent a day in Soweto painting in Mambo primary School.
Juxtapoz magazine came along and documented the day.
It made it into the December print issue.
I posted the full feature here:
http://www.a-word-of-art.co.za/a-blog/2012/12/11/juxtapoz-magazine/
Martha Cooper meets South Africa Hip Hop
In 1982 Emile YX (Then a school teacher and now legendary Hip Hop activist) wrote a letter to Martha Cooper introducing himself and the small scene here in Cape Town /South Africa.
30 years later i had the privilege of bringing Martha Cooper here for the first time for I ART JOBURG
I got to take Martha to the birth place of SA Hip Hop; Mitchell’s plain introducing Martha to Emile and the pioneers of South African Graffiti, Jammo and Baby.
Martha brought the letter that she saved all those years..
Jammo showed us the very first Graffiti piece in South Africa that he painted in the late 70’s .
Gugulethu public art project
I was recently invited by the Maboneng township art experience to participate in their public art festival held on a street and inside homes in Gugulethu.
Turning homes into galleries.
http://www.maboneng.com/
I painted a mural with the words: “Peace,Love and Creativity”
I was asked by someone to take their photograph standing in front of it.
And then more and more people lined up to have theirs taken too.
I printed out the images and came back the next day to display them in the street and give them to each individual at the end of the day.
(This action was inspired by spending time with Martha Cooper whom always likes to make a copy of the photograph for the person who she documented.)
It started to rain and so a community member took the photos to display inside his house.
I also painted a Springbok on a house with the help of my nose picking assistants.
Here they are painting their imaginary version of my artwork.
Below two images by Rowan Pybus.
Senyol x Freddy Sam
Street dialogue with Paul Senyol.
I started adding some street talk/poetry around woodstock,only to find Paul Senyol adding to my work along the way.
Resulting in street dialogue adding to each work over a few weeks.
Progress images by Klaus Warschkow who documented the conservation.
Check my part of the street talk series here:
What do you want to see?
I was invited by the Chris Cambell memorial football field in Khayalisha to rejuvenate their clubhouse.
I wanted to make sure i created something that the people who are exposed to it daily actually loved the artwork.
so..
I asked:What do you want to see?
First I asked the children at the neighboring school
We ran a workshop with them and let them design the mural asking ‘What do you want to see?)
Then we took these artworks and showed them to the neighboring community ,explaining that this is what the children want to see and then asking them the same question:What do you want to see?
I took all the suggestions and created a design inspired by the community.
Heres a what the clubhouse looked like before:
And after..
