NJABULO HLOPHE

Njabulo Hlophe (b. 1996- Johannesburg, South Africa) is a multi-medium contemporary artist currently based in Johannesburg operating under the pseudonym Dirty Native Chief. He would
best describe his practice as storytelling rather than mere
image making and the stories in question are merely
conversations that work both inwardly and outwardly toward the
human experience. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree
in visual communication at the Stellenbosch
Academy of Design and Photography in the Western Cape
where he conceptualized and created Studio Dirty Native. Njabulo was raised in Soweto and the Johannesburg CBD,
where he still resides today, using his practice to interrogate his
own existence with what he de- scribes as a “complex”
upbringing as a cultural hybrid. In this position, never fully fitting
anywhere, he takes a unique position of observer where he is
able to analyse and engage critically with the thoughts and
desires that occur within daily human life.
Njabulo’s work is ultimately a storyteller’s response to these
various observations. He aims to paint a picture that depicts the
plurality of human life, but also simultaneously exposing the
parallels we share as human beings, in its own way reflecting
on the plurality of identity and the many ways we fight and
battles we endure to find our own identities.