ABOUT

Gontse Bashele is a South African multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the understanding that every person around us carries a life as vivid, complex, and intricate as our own. Her paintings dwell in the spaces between empathy and observation, portraying fragments of human experience through cinematic stillness and emotional depth.

Gontse developed an early fascination with how lives unfold in parallel. Her curiosity for storytelling led her to pursue Motion Picture Medium at university, where she learned to see through a lens that captures both the seen and the unseen, the gestures, silences, and emotions that reveal the soul beneath the surface.

Over time, she transitioned from film to painting, discovering that paint could express what words and dialogue could not. Her artistic vision centers on sonder, a desire to tell the untold stories of others, to honor the individuality in every face, and to remind viewers that every person carries a world of memories, faith, and emotion. Through muted tones, layered textures, and soft light, she creates paintings of humanity that feel both deeply personal and universally familiar.

What began as quiet sketches became a lifelong practice of empathy. Each painting invites reflection, not only on the subject’s inner life but on the viewer’s own. Rooted in her South African identity yet shaped by a global sense of human connection, Gontse continues to explore how art can bridge differences through understanding. She paints as both observer and participant, creating works that whisper: “You are not alone in your story and neither am I.”