Dion Cupido’s latest solo exhibition is on display until May 26 at the WORLDART gallery in Cape Town.

Titled ‘State of reality’, his exhibition explores the notion of reality and perceptions of that reality. One person’s dangerous ghetto is another person’s place of safety. How does my reality compare with our reality, and ultimately, can reality even exist outside of ourselves? These questions are contained in urban scenes and portraits in which the fragile and the charged interweave to present viewers with potentially different experiences based on their realities.

Cupido is considered by many to be one of the most important black portrait artists of his generation. He grew up in the notorious Mitchells Plain suburb of Cape Town, where street art was his first introduction to art. As a teenager and young adult, he attended community art projects. He developed visual language with a strong reference to hip-hop culture and the reality of living in a place where gangsterism and other social ills are part of daily life.

Dion Cupido (b. 1973) is largely self-taught and has come a long way from being a teenager doing graffiti on walls in the Cape Flats to the respected artist he is today. By 2013, ArtSouthAfrica, South Africa’s most influential and widely read art magazine, nominated him as a Bright Young Thing.

Source: WORLDART.