David Krut Projects is pleased to present The Cult of One, a solo exhibition by Vusi Beauchamp exploring visual narratives that comment on social and political landscapes in South Africa.

The exhibition seeks to interrogate current societal ills and musings against a backdrop of the postcolonial, post-Apartheid and post-‘Rainbow Nation’ era. Beauchamp’s provocative iconography employs popular culture, satire and stereotypes in service of a visual political commentary. He seeks to examine the post-apartheid South African government embattled within itself, the disconnect with its people and our vexed social climate under this new viral threat, mired by false news and heightened insecurities over corruption.

The unprecedented rise of misinformation ‘brainwash’ tantamount to mental slavery undergirded by the inaction and reckless politicians duly to a ‘Cult of the elite’.

The Cult of One includes monotypes made in collaboration with Kim-Lee Loggenberg at the David Krut Workshop in 2021 and 2022, as well as mixed medium paintings with an array of mark making, pop art-inspired bright colours and text. Beauchamp is predominantly a painter, creating his works using various methods including spray painting and stencilling and materials such as crayons, charcoal, oil sticks and acrylic paints. Similarly, Beauchamp’s prints use a number of materials and techniques, often incorporating multiple layers to create a final print. The multidisciplinary approach for the series allowed for collaborative exchange, broadening the scope of realities in the multifarious dystopian Rainbow Nation narrative of the works.

The exhibition is a continuum of Beauchamp’s ongoing ‘Paradyse of the Damned’ series, which has been exhibited at the Pretoria Art Museum, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and recently in Romania at Borderline Art Space (2019).