About me
Papytsho Mafolo (b. 1977, Democratic Republic of Congo, lives and works in Brussels, Belgium) is a mixed-media artist whose practice examines the relationship between cultural identity, human behavior, and historical memory, with a particular focus on African societies shaped by displacement, colonial legacy, and resilience. Drawing on his Congolese heritage and personal experience of relocation, Mafolo’s work reflects on how identities are fractured, reconfigured, and sustained over time.
Working primarily in drawing and painting, Mafolo is known for densely composed, linear, and highly detailed surfaces in which fragmented bodies—often hybrid forms combining human and animal elements—emerge as recurring motifs. These figures function as metaphors for cultures and identities subjected to external hegemony and historical rupture. His compositions unfold through accumulative mark-making, with each detail operating like a vignette or chapter within a larger narrative structure, emphasizing continuity, survival, and transformation.
Mafolo received his training at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Institute of Fine Arts in Kinshasa, and later expanded his technical practice through studies in digital and visual technologies in Spain. His work has been presented widely across Africa, Europe, and North America, including solo exhibitions at the Judizmendi Cultural Center, Vitoria-Gasteiz (2016), Espace Mushagalusha, Montreal (2014), and Banque TMB, Kinshasa (2013). His work has also featured in numerous curated group exhibitions, including presentations at the World Bank, Washington, D.C. (2019), and exhibitions in London, Paris, Cape Town, and Johannesburg.
Mafolo has received multiple awards recognizing his early and sustained artistic contribution, including prizes from UNESCO, the Rotary Club, and cultural institutions in the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa. Through an evolving and experimental practice, Mafolo continues to explore themes of destruction and renewal, articulating a visual language in which catastrophe gives way to reconstruction, and new forms emerge from loss.
