Oteng Keabetswe
“Lerato la Malatsi a Pele is my attempt to search for peace within the tenderness of beginnings. Those first days of love carry a quiet calm, a softness where two people meet without history, without pressure, without the noise that comes later. In that simplicity, there is a kind of peace I keep trying to return to. In my own life, I’ve realized that the innocence of early connection often feels like a safe place, a moment where the heart rests, unguarded and honest. This work is my way of protecting that inner stillness, honoring how those early moments soften me and remind me of the gentleness I want to hold onto. But even in this search for peace, another question lingers: Can the calm of the beginning survive the storms that follow?”
Oteng Keabetswe (b. 2000) is a visual artist based in Johannesburg (South Africa) whose work explores the interplay between tradition and modernity, belonging and becoming ,memory and imagination. Drawing on his upbringing in Tutume village (Botswana) and later experiences in the urban environments of Gaborone and Francistown, he works primarily with acrylics, charcoal and graphite, transforming everyday gestures and lived encounters into geometric compositions that balance realism with abstraction.
“Lerato la Malatsi a Pele (The love of those first days)”, acrylics on canvas (100x90cm)