Siko Soloman

Solomon Siko was born in Wellington in 1965 and passed away December 2007 at the age of 42.
He lived with his family in the Mbekweni Township outside Paarl. Some of his earliest memories are hiding from the police by sleeping in the bushes with his mother who was looking for work, and not having a pass. Mbekweni, like so many other areas in South Africa, became a site of struggle during the eighties.
He came a long way since he started working as a sign writer and later as a labourer on the Du Toits Kloof Tunnel, where the N1 highway cuts through the Drakenstein mountains. With no formal art training he submitted a portfolio to the Community Arts Project and was selected for their 3 year cource from 1987 until 1989. Since 1991 he has worked as a full time artist and has recieved various awards and been part of a large number of exhibitions including "Art against Apartheid", an exhibition held in the South African Parlement, Cape Town in 1996.
Siko's work can be described as "Strong, accurate, sensitive and individual.
Solomon Siko has grown and developed to one of South Africa's top artists being recognised by International and local galleries and corporates. His untimely death is a great loss to the art comunity.

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