Keabetse Maake

Keabetse Maake (b. 2004, Tembisa, South Africa) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Johannesburg. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand (2022–2025) and works primarily in printmaking, textile, and photography to create immersive worlds that explore human existence, self-identity, and the space between reality and imagination. Maake's practice centers on world-building, giving physical form to memories, dreams, fantasies, and internal landscapes. Through themes of self-exploration and what it means to be human, she constructs layered narratives that exist in the liminal space between the tangible and the imagined. Her process is deeply material: she photographs carefully constructed sets, transforms these images into prints, and often makes her own paper by hand. This layered approach reflects her conceptual framework; photography serves as reality, handmade paper embodies texture and feeling, printmaking captures memory and dreams, while textile embroidery and embellishments become fantasy vehicles, bridging the real and imagined worlds.