It’s a quiet place, but every now and then you can hear cars and trucks roar past on the N3 highway.
Linbro Park is where artist Godfrey Majadibodu’s studio and living space give him breathing room to create.
Works are scattered everywhere. Some lean against walls. Others hang, completed. Some remain on easels, ready to have conversations with their creator.
It’s a place of creativityand it’s everywhere.
The Emotion
Majadibodu calls it emotion.
“It demands a lot from you. My work is about expressing what exists in the daily lives of people living here. That emotion must come through the painting.”
Presently, he’s working on a large piece titled “The Stupidity In My Land.” It’s rectangular, very green, and shows a reclining figure.
“That is where the ‘stupid’ begins. To be an artist, you must have patience and attention. Sometimes you must allow yourself to be a little foolish so that you can do what is truly inside you.”
The Process
Majadibodu doesn’t try to dominate his work.
“I don’t force a painting. Rather, I communicate with it. I let the work guide me so that the people who see it can find their own meaning.”
That sense of freedom has taken decades to arriveand he’s relishing it.
The Beginning
Born in Alexandra, Majadibodu spent much of his childhood moving between the city and rural areasHammanskraal, Limpopo, Randburg.
By 13 or 14, he was already drawing constantly.
But life was not easy. His mother worked as a domestic worker. Money was scarce. Majadibodu left school early and found work washing cars at a dealership in Sandton.
“I was only fourteen when I started working. At that time, many young people had to leave school to help support their families.”
The Turning Point
The American family his mother worked for noticed him.
“They asked my mother who I was and why I wasn’t at school. She told them that I liked drawing.”
At school, he’d already developed a reputation for his sketchesdrawing classmates doing funny things, enlarging pictures from textbooks because they were scarce.
The American employer asked to see his drawings.
“The next day, he told me he had found an art school for me.”
That school was FUBA (Federated Union of Black Artists)one of the few places during apartheid where black artists could formally study. The American employer paid the tuition.
“I studied there for four years and completed my diploma. After that, I continued with graphic design studies at the Johannesburg Art Foundation.”
The Career
By the late 1980s, Majadibodu started building a career as an artistat the height of the struggle, as a black man.
Sign writing helped pay the bills. Galleries began selling some work. Pieces were shown across the country.
“Art is not an easy career. You must have patience. Sometimes there is no money, so you do different kinds of work just to survive.”
His first major solo exhibition came in the mid-1990s at a gallery in Zoo Lake. Since then: exhibitions, collaborations, even an artist residency with a whisky distillery.
The Philosophy
Now 59, Majadibodu is at peace with the uncertainty of the art world.
He exhibits at ArtEye in Dainfern. For many years, artists create what the market demands “because you need to make a living.”
“But then you realise you are not showing people who you really are. My signature is the brand now.”
“If I sign a painting and someone looks at it, feels joy and wants to live with it, then that painting becomes the bread.”
The Bottom Line
From washing cars in Sandton to studying at FUBA to exhibiting across the country, Godfrey Majadibodu’s journey is one of resilience, patience, and unwavering commitment to his craft.
His signature is the brand. His work is the emotion. And his studio in Linbro Park is where it all comes to life.
