Neo Matloga (SA, 1993) completed a two-year residency at De Ateliers last year and has since remained living in Amsterdam. In 2018 he won the Dutch Royal Award for Modern Painting and in 2019 he was one of the three nominees for the Volkskrant Fine Art Award. His large-scale collages depict domestic interiors and family scenes, with a social dynamic that appears simultaneously intimate and genial, irascible and tense.

The quadtych O Ska Ngkarametša depicts a social scene in a tavern, a place where people come together, dance, drink, and talk about world and life problems. This setting facilitates an outlet, a coping mechanism providing space to share social and political stress.

Guillaume: ‘When you look at this painting, it somehow feels like coming home — as if you’ve seen it before. There’s a real craftsmanship about the work. It oozes maturity. This boy’s really got talent.’

Edson: ‘We come back to the same subject again here: the coming together of the group and the optimism this radiates.’