Three decades after his death, Keith Haring's creative and humanitarian impacts live on. He brought poignant messages to the surface through joyful design, and made waves in activism for LGBTQIA+ rights, the AIDS pandemic, and creative self-expression.This is an attempt to revive and reimagine Haring in a way that is unique to me - bringing together my time in South Africa and Germany - but that still pays homage and honour to Haring as a cosmic force.

happy dance

We're all different colours, but we can all dance. South Africa and Germany both have a melting pot of cultures moving through their borders, and this series celebrates our differences and unique identities — including something that Haring was very passionate about in his activism, namely: Living as a normal person with HIV/AIDS. This is particularly true for South Africa, which has one of the highest number of AIDS cases globally.

wild animals

Africa is well-known for its animal kingdom and its breath-taking landscapes. Savannahs, Sahara Dessert, tropical jungles, lions, elephants, wildebeest... And, an unexpected connection that Germany has to these things is the Lion King musical - famously set in Africa, which has been running on Hamburg's stage since 2001. The energy and colour and wilderness that these two countries share through animals, and then also music, is an homage to the cultural bridges Haring so passionately wanted.This series also includes an animal very dear to my heart: My cats, which are fiercely independent, true hunters, and as much a part of my animal kingdom as the rest.

southern africa

There are 9 major ethnic groups that South Africa celebrates: Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi, Batswana, South Ndebele, Basotho, Venda, Tsonga, and Swazi. Each is unique in its rich culture and language, and each has its own traditions, colours, patterns, foods, music... The list goes on. The choreography that these 9 native languages dance to amalgamates in South Africa's energetic DNA.

CITIES

We are all collages of our environments.Modern-day cities are a kaleidoscope of culture, people, nature, and animal life. There is a strong connection to our social fabric in cities. They form part of who we are, what we enjoy, where we go, who we meet... They are part of our identity. There is tension in cities, yet there is also a sense of home. There is crime and poverty, but there is also community and kindness. They are complex, they are diverse, they are dynamic.

“Nothing is important…
so everything is important.”

This collection of Keith-inspired artworks serves primarily as an homage to Haring himself, but also as a reminder to bring joy and dance and colour into our lives. The tension of daily living is not unimportant, but we get to choose the lens through which we see it — and that lens can very easily be the kind of world Haring created and left behind for us, and the world that I'm reimagining in "Keith Re:Imagined."

hi, I'm jomiro ᐧ ◡ ᐧ

I'm a Cape Town / Hamburg designer and artist, with a zest and passion for storytelling. My background in Journalism afforded me an intimate experience with unravelling complex webs of human-ness, identity, emotion, culture, heritage... and re-weaving them into something that others can touch, feel, experience, and relate to.Feel free to reach out — to ask about artworks, buy prints, or simply talk about life ᐧ ◡ ᐧ