PAINTING WITHOUT PERMISSION

BY MTHETHO SONO

Red Square 3 by Mthetho Sono | Mixed media on paper | 27cm x 21cm.

This body of work moves in a more expressive direction, shaped by a process guided by the materials themselves. Working directly and instinctively onto the surface, the paintings emerge without prior dialogue, planning, or rigid conceptualisation. Instead, the act of making becomes a space where material exploration and self-exploration unfold simultaneously.

Color, gesture, and texture lead the process, allowing each work to develop organically on the canvas. The pieces begin to function almost like a compilation of daily entries — moments of first-person expression captured through immediacy, movement, and instinct. Created without the fear or filter of the onlooker, the works embrace openness and honesty, allowing the paintings to exist as direct records of presence and emotional response.

Artworks by Mthetho Sono on display downstairs at WORLDART.

Free from the pressure of external expectations, the works continue to reject the fear or filter of the onlooker. This openness allows the paintings to exist as honest visual records of process, presence, and emotion, while also reflecting an ongoing investigation into how abstraction can communicate internal states, memory, and sensation. Through layered surfaces and shifting color relationships, the works open a space for interpretation, where abstraction becomes a direct language of experience, and each viewer is invited to form their own emotional and visual connection to the paintings.

Now on show downstairs at WORLDART.

For more information, contact Charl Bezuidenhout at info@worldart.co.za or on +27 (0)21 423 3075 or visit www.worldart.co.za