Nyakallo Maleke is an artist, a writer, an educator and a cyclist who is based in Johannesburg. Her practice negotiates itself across disciplines, however at the moment it is grounded in the medium of drawing, printmaking and installation. She merges both of her interests in creative writing and drawing to construct her drawings which rely on mark making and materiality. Her practice is curious about place making, ways of communicating and writing which she depicts in a visual form. Maleke's drawing practice intuitively attempts to document and configure her personal curiosities personal that are guided by the imagination using the language of abstraction.
She is an alumnus of the Master of Art in the Public Sphere programme in Switzerland (2019), Asiko International Art School, Addis Ababa edition (2016) and graduated with BA Fine Art from Wits University in 2015. She has participated in group exhibitions at venues including Stevenson, Cape Town; Modzi Art Gallery, Lusaka, Her first solo exhibition, titled Leaning Towards an Edge that Does Not Leak was held at the John Muafangejo Art Centre in Windhoek, Namibia, in 2016. Maleke is also recognised as a fiction writer, and was recently shortlisted for the inaugural Toyin Falola Prize for her short story titled Eskia. In 2022 she participated in the Aichi Triennial in Aichi, Japan and the exhibition Echo, at Jenkins Johnson, USA and at the Kunsthalle Bern.
Making Sense Of The Same Story curated by Boitumelo Makousu is Maleke's debut solo exhibition which was shown at the Bag Factory Artist Studios in Johannesburg.
