Local artist “flexes” at exhibiton

“Creativity is contagious, you owe it to yourself to pass it on”, was the biggest take from Louis De Villiers’ Flex and Finesse exhibition hosted at Studio 031 on Thursday evening.

The theme of the event, Flex and Finesse means: Flexing, showing off your valuables in a non-humble manner and Finessing means being able to project a certain image of yourself .

Ten South African artists exhibited their artworks on limited edition tote bags.

Those artists included Paige Furness, Shaun Oakley, Tyra Naidoo, African Ginger and Hillcrest local, Siqamesihle Nomtyhala.

The Durban University of Technology student, known as SQ Invision was exhibiting among the finest young artists in the country.

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Siqamesihle got this opportunity because he was doing his third-year history essay on the Flex and Finesse curator, Louis De Villiers.

“I followed him [Louis] on Instagram since I had to do my research on him and I liked a couple of things on his page and he liked some of my work on my Instagram page and followed me back, so for research, I got the opportunity to ask him some questions for the essay”, said Nomtyhala.

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“Through all of that he invited me to exhibit my work for this show he had planned”.

Nomtyhala interpreted the theme ‘Flex and Finesse’ by branding the character in his artwork as someone who shows off and looks good doing it.

“What I wanted to put on my character is to show everything he lives for, like street culture, hypebeast culture and his skin tone is also different because he sees himself as more than a human,” Nomtyhala explained.

The event also featured a photo booth, run by Foto Durban and a multimedia fashion showing powered by ALC Menswear which happened throughout the course of the evening.

“The whole vibe of the event was to try and give back to a city that gave me so much,” said De Villiers. “If we can get all these creatives into the same room, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”

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