Etching on Fabriano Rosapina, 25 x 25 cm
“Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’” — Matthew 25:40–45. Imago forms part of the Imago Dei Latores series, which asks what it means to bear the image of God in lived experience beyond profession. The work is conceived as both mirror and rebuke, pressing my own failings in mercy, compassion, and sacrifice.
The hogtied lamb, its halo insistent, recalling Zurbarán’s Agnus Dei but is displaced onto an indeterminate ground. Here the lamb is not only Christ, the sacrificed, but also the least—the overlooked, the bound, the silenced. The way the matrix is treated through overextended acid etching times presents the lamb as decay itself. Its presence interrogates how a life claimed as Christian measures itself against the call to self-giving.
The title Imago lingers in tension. Meaning “likeness” or “mental image,” it evokes the theological phrase Imago Dei—the image of God—yet remains deliberately incomplete. What, or whom, does this lamb mirror? The viewer is asked to decide whether it reflects Christ, the least of these, or their own likeness staring back.
Lehlohonolo Nale (B. 2004, Kempton Park, South Africa) is currently pursuing an honours in fine arts at the University of Pretoria. He chooses his mediums based on what each concept demands, working across sculpture (concrete, steel), drawing, etching, experimental painting and printmaking, as well as experimental photography and videography.
Grounded in Christian scripture, lived experience, and the tensions of life in South Africa, his work engages themes of ritual, burden, personal testimony, and trauma. His sculptural practice explores spiritual and moral weight, drawing influence from Brutalist and Gothic architecture and religious iconography—forms associated with devotion—while his two-dimensional work often reworks traditional media in pursuit of technical rigour and emotional clarity.
Nale constructs narrative-driven, materially responsive works that reflect on themes of faith, loss, and endurance. He does not aim to resolve pain, but to serve by offering contemplative spaces where brokenness is carried. His art sits at the intersection of spiritual inquiry, formal experimentation, and the realities of post-apartheid South Africa.
Nale has been a part of various group exhibitions including : Art exhibition at next to (2024); University of Pretoria Undergrad Group Exhibition (2024,2025); Vrystaat Kunstefees: MC Roodt's Nothing Lasts, Except this (2025); Momentum Aardklop: MC Roodt's Nothing Lasts, Except this (2025); Show me Home at the Trent Gallery (2025); A Marked Slate at The Viewing Room Art Gallery (2025); One and the Minutiae at the Javett Art Centre (2025) and Head Spaces at Terra Contemporary Gallery (2026), Cape Town Print Fair (2026).