Balekane Legoabe’s work explores the relationship between nature, spirituality and identity by interrogating personal and collective histories. She is interested in how the human experience mirrors the processes of nature and vice versa. Seasons, cycles, birth, death, growth, decline, resilience, change, resistance, expansion - all of these phenomena are markers of the human experience, and we also see them, in one way or another, affecting plants, animals, the elements and the cosmos.

Her artistic vision is enriched by a diverse array of influences, including ancient rock art and cave paintings, as well as mythology from African, Eastern, and Western traditions. Legoabe's approach incorporates aspects of language, metaphor, ritual, and family. Driven by personal interpretations and explorations of African and Eastern healing practices, she weaves together eclectic philosophical and religious systems to inform her creative process.

Legoabe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Communication specialising in illustration, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Arts specialising in motion design, both from the Open Window Institute.

The artist has taken part in several group exhibitions and art fairs around South Africa, and was the prize winner of the 2019 StateoftheART gallery award for emerging artists. Legoabe’s work can be found in collections such as the William Humphreys Gallery in Kimberely, South Africa and Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, Germany.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024
'Things That Are My Own', EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2020
‘What it Feels Like to be in Water’, State of the Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (Online)

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2025
'Threads of Land', Lumi Gallery, Hout Bay, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Eleven Edition, Cape Town, South Africa

2024
‘… as we see it’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Eleven Editions, Johannesburg, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa

2023
'Artwords', Gallery @ Glen Carlou, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Hiatus’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Liewe Land’, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Eleven Editions, Johannesburg, South Africa
'The F Word', Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

2022
Turbine Art Fair, The Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Abstr*cted’, State of the Art Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
ABSA Gallery Showcase, Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, Oudtshoorn, South Africa

2021
Turbine Art Fair, Gallery 2, Johannesburg, South Africa
'Blue Tape Series', P72 (Kalashnikovv Gallery project space), Johannesburg, South Africa

2020
‘Occupying a fatuous state of severity’, TMRW Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019
FNB Joburg Art Fair, No End Contemporary Art Space, Johannesburg, South Africa
Turbine Art Fair, No End Contemporary Art Space, Johannesburg, South Africa

RESIDENCIES

2024
50ty50ty Print Studio Residency, Cape Town, South Africa

COLLECTIONS

William Humphreys Art Gallery, Kimberley, South Africa
UCT Collection, Cape Town, South Africa