ARTIST STATEMENT - February 2026
This exhibition brings together a new body of paintings in which Cupido responds directly — and unapologetically — to the fractured realities of contemporary life.
Cupido’s starting point is the world as he encounters it: the art world, politics, religion, and lifestyle culture collide on his canvases. The works reflect a landscape where certainty has dissolved and positions are constantly questioned. Is art still in the eye of the beholder? Whose politics do we align with? Do moral absolutes exist, or has everything become negotiable?
“There is a sense that everyone is on a battlefield,” Cupido suggests, “but no one really knows who — or what — they are aiming at.” This atmosphere of confusion, noise, and contradiction is central to the exhibition. Rather than offering answers, Cupido exposes the tension itself, using painting as a space where ambiguity is not only allowed, but necessary.
Visually bold and conceptually direct, Let Me Tell You Something continues Cupido’s exploration of contemporary identity and belief systems, pushing beyond comfort zones without slipping into spectacle. The works are confrontational at times, ironic at others, but never neutral. Indifference, in this case, is not an option.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“With this show, I explored painting in a more impulsive way, focusing less on the image itself and more on the concept of painting and my narrative. My narrative has always been, and continues to be, a reflection of the impact your environment has on you. With each portrait, I aimed to reach the heart of the subject and uncover its soul by embracing a more instinctive approach to painting.”
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Dion Cupido (b. 1973) grew up in Mitchells Plain, South Africa. Largely self-taught, he has journeyed from a teenager creating graffiti on the walls of the Cape Flats to becoming a respected contemporary artist. Cupido discovered his talent for painting in 1990 while helping a friend with a school project, and his first paintings were exhibited in 1998. In 2003, he joined the Arts & Media Access Centre’s (AMAC) professional development program, where he won the Truworths AMAC Academy of the Visual Arts award.
By 2013, ArtSouthAfrica, the continent’s most influential and widely read arts magazine, nominated him as a Bright Young Thing. Around this time, he experienced an important realization about his work: it often evokes thoughts and memories in viewers.
“I realized that our biased memories do more than simply present us with images of our personal history. They also shape our sense of who and what we are. In doing so, they guide us toward forming opinions about ourselves that may not be entirely accurate. As a result, they often limit us to experiencing life only as we think we know it,” says Cupido.
Today, Cupido’s work combines abstraction and portraiture, incorporating street art techniques to delve into themes of memory and identity. Writer and art historian Ashraf Jamal has observed that Cupido “represents the very newly minted post-transitional moment in South African art; a moment in which our dark history and its democratic afterglow are both beside the point.”
Cupido lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
