Biography

Samantha Maseko is a South African artist born 1997, in Mpumalanga, Boschfontein. She resides in Johannesburg where she has matriculated and worked. Maseko is currently completing her studies in third year at Artist Proof Studio. Maseko is working towards being a professional printmaker and visual artist.

Artist Statement

My body of work revolves around the themes of  feminism and identity. I look at the misconceptions of beauty about Black women and these ideas have put them in a difficult place. In my work I show how Black women have evolved throughout the years by raising 21st centuries controversies around Black women bleaching their skin, replacing their natural hair with synthetic hair and modifying their bodies to fit certain beauty standards laid out by society.

The work is inspired by my career journey in modeling and a song by singer, songwriter Nina Simone called "Four Women". This song speaks about black women who had issues with the way their hair, body and complexion looked. This made me realize that we have been brainwashed for so many years by social media, modeling agencies, Western culture and men into feeling this way about ourselves. So with this body of work, I seek to empower  women from all walks of  life who have felt degraded or dismissed by social media and society's 's standards of Black women. .