Local artist soars with the angels
IF you are commissioned to create artworks for a potential Hollywood blockbuster starring Morgan Freeman, you know you’ve arrived.
Artist Loyiso Mkize from Butterworth in the Eastern Cape is known for his powerful portraits and comic-book art. Now he has landed a plum commission for Stephen Campanelli’s action thriller Momentum, which stars Freeman, Olga Kurylenko and James Purefoy.
Campanelli, who was Clint Eastwood’s cameraman for 20 years, makes his directorial debut with the film.
Shot in Cape Town, Momentum is scheduled for release later this year.
It tells a story about modern crime, greed and victory, as the characters embark on a mission involving a calculated heist that goes wrong.
When set director Estè Kira Opperman stumbled on Mkize’s work online, she knew she had found her man.
It was perfect timing, as the 28-year-old, based in Cape Town, was looking for a challenge after producing the su- perhero comic book Kwezi and a series of provocative paintings, including one of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
He had a tight deadline to create nine artworks, all with an angel theme.
The film tells the story of Ray, a Scotsman who is a thief and an artist who paints angels. Mkize did incomplete and complete paintings, including a “self-portrait” of the character ascending to heaven.
Mkize studied graphic design at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and got his first break with the comic Supa Strikas in 2008.
He went on to hold three solo exhibitions and a group exhibition in New York.