Meet the Artist: Athenkosi Kwinana
Athenkosi Kwinana at ADMIRALS RESIDENCE in collaboration with artists: Alicia Blam • Lauren Bickerdike
Some artists draw or paint beauty. Some confront brutality in reality. Athenkosi Kwinana does both, often at the same time.
Born in the Eastern Cape and now based in Johannesburg, Athenkosi’s work emerges from a deeply personal yet politically charged terrain — the daily experience of living with Albinism in South Africa. Her portraits, composed in coloured pencil with an almost surgical clarity, insist on presence where society would rather look away.
Her drawings are not quiet. They stare back.
At The ADMIRALS RESIDENCE, her studio has been filled with textures, pens and carefully composed gazes. But the truest material was her listening. To the community, to memory, to her art.
“People think Albinism is something to be erased. My work says: no — we’re here. We’re in the room. We’ve always been.”
Her previous projects — including Ndijongile, Septemb24k, and Reimagining Albus — have traversed Cuba, Cape Town, and Constitution Hill. In each, she has interrogated the weaponisation of myth, the failure of policy, and the quiet dignity of daily life. Her style — dense, direct, unflinching — is a form of visual activism.
But what’s perhaps most arresting about Athenkosi’s presence here isn’t the sharpness of her critique. It’s the softness of her care.
As one participant said after a workshop: “I didn’t know anyone could make me feel this seen without speaking.”
Come meet her work. It will meet you back.
Location: 64 Windermere Road, Muizenberg. Date: 13 August 2025 Time: 17:00 – 20:00 Come as witness, guest, or participant. There is space for you here.
Meet the Artist: Athenkosi Kwinana
Athenkosi Kwinana at ADMIRALS RESIDENCE in collaboration with artists: Alicia Blam • Lauren Bickerdike
Some artists draw or paint beauty. Some confront brutality in reality. Athenkosi Kwinana does both, often at the same time.
Born in the Eastern Cape and now based in Johannesburg, Athenkosi’s work emerges from a deeply personal yet politically charged terrain — the daily experience of living with Albinism in South Africa. Her portraits, composed in coloured pencil with an almost surgical clarity, insist on presence where society would rather look away.
Her drawings are not quiet. They stare back.
At The ADMIRALS RESIDENCE, her studio has been filled with textures, pens and carefully composed gazes. But the truest material was her listening. To the community, to memory, to her art.
“People think Albinism is something to be erased. My work says: no — we’re here. We’re in the room. We’ve always been.”
Her previous projects — including Ndijongile, Septemb24k, and Reimagining Albus — have traversed Cuba, Cape Town, and Constitution Hill. In each, she has interrogated the weaponisation of myth, the failure of policy, and the quiet dignity of daily life. Her style — dense, direct, unflinching — is a form of visual activism.
But what’s perhaps most arresting about Athenkosi’s presence here isn’t the sharpness of her critique. It’s the softness of her care.
As one participant said after a workshop: “I didn’t know anyone could make me feel this seen without speaking.”
Come meet her work. It will meet you back.
Location: 64 Windermere Road, Muizenberg. Date: 13 August 2025 Time: 17:00 – 20:00 Come as witness, guest, or participant. There is space for you here.
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