​Contemporary South African Art

X'aga was born in the late 1950's, early 1960's in the Ghanzi District where her people lived as hunter-gatherers.  She is the sister of the late Kuru artist Xg'oa Mangana.

After seeing the art her brother Xg'oa produced at the Kuru Art Project, X'aga wished to join the project as an artist as well.  Up until then she had been satisfying her creativity with craft-making and beadwork.  She joined the project in 1997.

X'aga, enjoys painting in oils as well as making lino cuts.  Her work ranges from large bold canvases to smaller lino prints, fine line hand-coloured etchings and drypoint engravings.  She works in a spontaneous and direct way from memory and chooses colours at random, depending on her mood.  X'aga's favourite subjects are the things she remembers from her childhood; the veldfood, the birds and small animals like tortoises and beetles still fascinate her.

For X'aga and the other female artists at Kuru, the tubers, berries and edible plants from the Kalahari symbolise times of abundance and prosperity for their people. 1

1: The Kuru Art Project