ART INSIDE MY...

A WALK THROUGH LANGA KHANYILE’S PRIVATE ART COLLECTION

Which artwork do you wish you owned from anywhere or a certain time period?

“There is a series by Ayanda Mabulu called The Healers that he recently exhibited. The entire series is evocative and packed with a supreme spirit. In particular, there is one healer that is seated near her throne, sipping from a teacup with gold-tipped talons, while a black beast (her spirit animal or her totem) peeks from beneath the lush brush around her. It quivers my heart on many levels and speaks to an ancient part of me.”

WALKING INTO LANGA KHANYILE’S HOME is like stepping into a well-curated, private gallery. From sculptures gathered across the continent to some of the country’s biggest names, including Sam Nhlengethwa and Ayanda Mabulu, Langa’s collection is enviable.

Langa, the marketing lead for the rest of Africa at Mondelez International, has been collecting his prized possessions for as long as he can remember.

“I started collecting art in high school; mostly artworks I did myself. Some still hang on my walls to this day,” he says. Using money he made from piece jobs and selling snacks, he would buy paint supplies and frames for personal artworks that he wanted to keep.

“Later, when I moved into digs, I would expropriate artworks from my older brother – whatever could fit in a suitcase or the boot of a car with the seats pushed down,” he says laughing. The first piece he bought for himself as a 30-year-old in 2013 hangs beside his fireplace: a painting of a herd of buffalo by Danie Theron.

“I have always loved the arts,” he says. In his youth, Langa acted in plays, sang in choirs and bands and founded a car design club in primary school. “I am gifted in the arts and have been artistic for as long as I can remember. Some of my earliest memories are tied to art,” he says of the discipline he describes as offering “freedom”.

Part of his love of collecting different pieces is in the stimulation it can bring across different senses. “It’s not just the art that hangs on the walls, but the art that we sit on, drink from and eat with. One can be intentional about collecting while finding joy from the craft and beauty in almost anything,” he says. Langa also deems the experience of curating his space as transformative. “I used to have a dull and dreary room in my house. I never enjoyed spending time in there and didn’t know what to do with it. I then threw in an electric blue designer couch and sunshine yellow ottoman, and even though I kept the art on the walls the same, it now makes me smile just thinking about it.”