South African Artist Breaks Guinness World Record For The Largest Portrait Using Coffee Granules. He told Sowetan Live that he is trying to create a link between him and the international market with his portrait.
A South African artist by the name of Percy Maimela made history by breaking the Guinness World Record as an artist for the biggest portrait using coffee. The 33-year-old was in Sandton City when he got his record title, he made a 5x5m drawing of South African music producer, Black Coffee. He told Sowetan Live that he is trying to create a link between him and the international market with his portrait.
“The aim is to break the record and create a bridge between me and the international market. A world record is not a Pretoria record or a Joburg record. I am hoping this will open doors for me,” says Percy Maimela. The 33-year-old says that he always had a thing for art but he had no idea as to how he’ll make it a career. He went on to say that there were no mentors and people that were artists in his city. He wanted to go pursue a career in science after matric because that was what they expected from him. “I wanted to go to varsity to study science because of the system. So I was going to do a more traditional job. Then I realised that art was more for me and I tried to study multimedia but there was no space for me,” says Percy Maimela.
The artist went on to say that started doing art as a side job, while he worked as a merchandiser in retail. He then linked with a centre for art in his community by the name of Azanian Arts Development Centre where he connected with people that thought like him. “We started a company where we would all sell art on the weekends at malls and at parks,” says Percy Maimela. The artist looks up to greats such as Great-Joy Ndlovu, Nelson Makamo and Azael Langa. The artist was working in collaboration with Sound Idea Sessions for its 5-hour masterclass with Black Coffee and Ryan Holiday on the 7th of November.
by Alexandra Ramaite
