SOUTH AFRICA - Nomsa Kumalo is a young artist who has already had much success with a solo exhibit at the Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Grahamstown festival, among other venues in South Africa. Her subject matter highlights black women of South Africa, who were among the most oppressed groups in the world under apartheid. Due to a lack of education and resources, many of them had to resort to badly paid domestic service, with long hours and little ability to negotiate favorable terms. Here we see four ink studies of black domestic workers whom Nomsa portrays with grace and dignity. These women worked long hours to earn money for her family, often living apart from them at the employment site in an affluent neighborhood. While the images show the harsh reality of the women with great sensitivity, they are transformative. In Domestic Worker as Venus, we see that the woman has not lost her feminine power nor her contribution to the process of life. Domestic Worker at Rest shows the woman in profile, supported by her arms, seated on a white cloth with her legs out in front of her. Her back is straight and the only signs of real weariness can be inferred from the stark contrast of the jagged ink wash in back of her. Domestic Worker Hanging Washing is made to look as if she is almost having fun, flinging the white cloth over the wire. The boldness of the ink wash contrasts beautifully with the delicacy of line. In Domestic Woman’s Burden, the hardships are more evident in her posture and the two pieces of laundry still hanging on the line. The gestures drawn in these works are so simple, yet the statements are so poignant.