Lelo Dassie

Lelo Dassie is a South African visual artist based in the Western Cape. She holds a Diploma in Fine Art and is a multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, painting and sculpture, with a strong focus on expressive portraiture. Her practice explores the human face as a space for emotion, identity, presence and connection. Working with charcoal, ink, oil, acrylic and sculptural materials. She combines observational drawing with expressive mark-making and an intuitive approach to image-making.

Her practice has evolved through experimentation across different mediums and processes. More recently, she has been exploring ink on canvas, allowing greater spontaneity and unpredictability within her work. Through her practice, Dassie explores transformation, vulnerability and the process of becoming while continuing to develop her own visual language and artistic voice.

Practice

My practice centres on drawing, painting and sculpture, particularly expressive portraiture. I am interested in the human face as a place where emotion, identity and experience become visible. I use charcoal, ink, oil, acrylic and sculptural materials to explore faces through observation, expressive mark-making, contrast, gesture and form.

Although portraiture is central to my practice, I am not interested only in achieving physical likeness. I want the work to carry a sense of presence and emotion and to create a moment of connection between the subject, the artwork and the viewer.

My practice has developed through continual experimentation across different mediums. I have moved between drawing, painting and sculpture and have recently been exploring ink on canvas, allowing the material to introduce a greater sense of spontaneity and unpredictability into my work. This experimentation has encouraged me to trust the process rather than trying to control every mark.

I see my artistic practice as an ongoing process of becoming. What I have experienced and learned informs what I create now, but my work also gives me the opportunity to question, transform and move beyond what came before. I am interested in what can emerge when we allow ourselves to change.

Through my work, I hope audiences pause, connect emotionally and recognise something of themselves in the faces and experiences represented.