Have you ever heard of sapeur culture? Birthed in Congo, in the heart of Brazaville and Kinshasa, it’s a movement that celebrates sartorial splendour on a lavish scale. Adherents wear clothes of the most dashing cut and unexpected colour, and their appearance, elegance and sophistication simply cannot be ignored.

Sapeur culture is one of the themes explored in Congolese artist Joel Mamboka’s debut solo exhibition in Johannesburg, showing now at The Gallery at Steyn City. Joel is fascinated by the cultural and socio-political origins of this movement and uses mediums such as wax loincloth to investigate further. The result is an oeuvre Trent Read of Knysna Fine Art has called “eminently collectable”.