Pumelele GUMA

Pumelele Guma aims to change the way that art is seen, by the way that people have access to art, and also bring his world and daily experiences to the world to see. He is also a small business owner running a local gallery called The Move Gallery, Being a creative is hard, he admits, but having the drive to change the world and create is the key and having that key, he believes one just has to open the doors.

Guma’s work is based on the surroundings of his community as he shows the beauty of growing up in poverty. He chooses to show the good times, the spiritual moments and safe spaces of Khayelitsha, to celebrate the spaces and people that are never spoken about. It is this sense of community that inspires his art to mirror his community’s positivity and not the negatives that surrounds it. He says that being the man that he has chosen to be is the one that shares and captures these moments with his art.

Guma is a forever learning child of art as he is amazed by the different ways in which one can express oneself. By founding a local gallery, Guma aims to have these type of conversations with the community and show the possibility of creativity to uplift, and create a positive and lasting impact. Guma believes that as an artist one has the opportunity to leave a mark and the duty to make a difference and through this, he feels proud to say: I am Pumelele Guma.