Biography 

Phillip Mabote was born in Qwa-Qwa, Eastern Free State, South Africa in 1982. Mabote works predominantly in the medium of linocut. He studied Professional Printmaking at Artist Proof Studio (2007 – 2009). As a student Mabote participated in Sonke Gender Justice Awareness Campaign and as a student teacher, he taught kids aged between 6 years to 14 years as part of the Studio’s outreach programme. He has had a solo show at Candice Berman Gallery (Hunting For Lost Memories.2016), as well as participated in group shows at Lizamore and Associates (The Forgotten.2016), S.A Fine Art Print Fair, Gordon Institute of Business Science (2015) and Industrial Development Corporation(2015) to name a few.  He is represented in the collection of ARUP (Melrose Arch Johannesburg), Bus Rapid Transit Stations (Johannesburg) and Sonke Gender Justice Network (Johannesburg). He lives and works in Protea Glen, Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa. 

Artist Statement 

In my previous works I used images of eagles, compasses, card patterns and silhouetted figures carved onto large linocut plates. My images are inspired by an uncertain family background and my own long term personal search for meaning and legacy. In my more recent work I use smaller scaled linocut plates attempting to return to a comparable size of a playing card, flipping and using the back of the card and carving my images from there. It is perhaps time I return back to the values my grandmother taught me to forgive and forget and bring the focus to my future.