John Vusi Mfupi is a Soweto Born artists whose work portrays celebration of youth and mobility; dealing with human life matters that affect people globally. Mfupi’s style has developed into his well known upcycled collage technique, not only is this technique an efficient means of production as an artist living in a small space, the materials also play vital a role in portraying his concepts. Having no space and art material Mfupi uses magazines and colour to portray everyday life through art. 

With firm belief it takes bravery to be an artist in South Africa and Mfupi enjoys sharing creative experiences and skills with youth. Whilst painting murals with school children, issues such as; language, teenage pregnancy, drugs, alcohol and HIV/AIDS are dealt with. In dealing with such issues Mfupi believes one does not have to utilise traditional Fine Art media. On the contrary his use of recycled materials plays a strong roll in his concepts. Found materials such as burnt newspaper, found objects and pigments are combined to form an emotive reaction to his daily context. 

We find South African context surrounding this response, as it reflects physical materials and creates the generated energy of the artworks. The result is an authentic visual language that supports the notion of wall mounted art as well as raises our responsiveness of intrinsic aesthetic qualities of ordinary materials.

-JP