In a culture obsessed with youth, three South African creatives prove that creativity deepens with time — refining rather than fading as the years pass.
Pat Mautloa: Visual Artist, Co-founder of the Bag Factory
Born in the North West Province’s Ventersdorp in 1952, Kagiso Patrick Mautloa moved to Soweto as a child, where his creative spark was ignited by the ingenuity of township life. Despite living under apartheid rule, he found early encouragement at school, where his artistic aptitude was recognised.
While working as a graphic designer at the SABC, he continued developing his art after hours. In 1985, he co-founded the Thupelo Workshops, a seminal initiative Fostering artistic freedom for black artists. He later helped establish the Bag Factory in Joburg in 1991, where he still works from today.
With recent exhibitions at the Goodman Gallery and last year at the Ljubljana Biennale in Slovenia, Pat isn’t looking back; he’s still creating, sharpening over time. Now in his 70s and shaped by years of making, his practice hasn’t slowed. “The urge is stronger now; with age, you gather knowledge and you return to your essence,” he reflects.
He remains energised by emerging artists at the Bag Factory. “My staying young, I owe to this place,” he says. “Art changes humanity, it helps people access one another’s way of thinking.”
Follow Pat on Instagram: @kagisopatmautloa
Ruth Motau, Photographer, South Africa’s first black female editor
At 57, Ruth Seopedi Motau has allowed time to nurture her creative voice, giving it space to do what it does best – strengthen. A graduate of the Market Photo Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, she trained under documentary photographer David Goldblatt.
From the beginning, her lens has been coaxed by the texture of township life, the churches, the shebeens, and the spaces in between.
“If I didn’t tell those stories, no one would have,” she says.
Ruth’s work has been shown in more than 50 local and international exhibitions, a body of work that refuses to grow quiet or irrelevant. But her sights are set firmly forward. “I am busy with a project on black beauty,” she says, her tone steady, her gaze flickering with quiet conviction.
She also mentors young black female photographers from townships and rural areas, guiding those often left without access to training or support.
“I know the challenges they face,” says Ruth, her eyes drifting to a photograph from her Shebeen serieshanging in her home.
Her instinct to uplift others is an echo of the truth that creativity is never only about the work; it’s also about the people it reaches. Her generosity is a quiet reminder of how art reconnects us to purpose, to meaning and one another.
Follow Ruth on Instagram: @seopedi_8
Paul van der Spuy, Fashion Designer, Co-founder of Carducci
Paul van der Spuy is as creatively charged as ever at the age of 76. “I design for the part of you that remembers,” he shares, his voice steady with the kind of clarity only time can hone.
From co-founding Carducci to shaping cult labels like Frank B. Ernest and garnering five South African Fashion Awards, Paul has long worked at the intersection of style and soul. The Proper Store, home to bespoke pieces that continue his design ethos, is the next natural chapter in a creative life still unfolding, and retails from the Oranjezicht City Farm Market in Cape Town.
A conceptual thinker, Paul’s creativity flows beyond design into interiors and branding with equal flair. A self-described “retrobate,” he draws inspiration from eras when craft was sacred, and the artisan’s hand still led. Even after four decades, reinvention remains his fuel.
“It wasn’t a sabbatical,” he grins of a recent trip through India and Bangkok, “it was a creative fanatical.”
The trip yielded new fabrics, trims that spoke to his soul and collaborations grounded in old-world skill.
Perhaps his most enduring creation isn’t a garment, but the legacy he’s shaping with the youngest of his three sons, Oscar. Their journey to India was as much a dialogue as a pilgrimage.
Today, Oscar outsells his father at the market, not in competition, but as a continuation of the family’s creative rhythm.
