Percy Maimela Biography

Percy Maimela Biography

Percy Maimela (born in 1985) is a record-breaking South African salt artist. He has gained popularity by drawing portraits of renowned celebrities and passers-by.

His work has been offered auction many times which realized prices that ranged from $1,050 to $1,709. The size and medium of the work influenced the price.

Profile Summary

Full Name:                          Percy Maimela

Born:                                 1985 (age 37 years old)

Place of Birth:                     Pretoria, South African

Nationality:                         South African

Ethnicity:                            Black

Spouse:                              N/A

Award:                                Guinness World Record title for the largest coffee grounds                                                mosaic of Black Coffee

Children:                             1

Occupation:                         Artist

Profile:                                Facebook • Twitter • Instagram

Net Worth:                          $350,000

Background

He was born Percy Maimela in 1985 and hails from Winterveld north of Pretoria. For him, arts have always been part of his life and they have been together forever. At first, he did art on the side as a hobby without knowing that he could make a business out of it.

Qualifications

He had his primary and secondary school in South Africa. After his matriculation, he wanted to do science. He wanted to go and study science on the varsity. That changed when he realized that art was more to him and he tried to do multimedia.

However, there was no space for him.  Later, he joined a center for art called Azanian Arts Development Centre.

Career

Before he started to do arts, he had worked as a merchandiser. His life changed after he dispersed salt on the floor. He played around it eventually something nice came out of it.

Percy drew a portrait, he did a portrait of a man with a dreadlock. His colleagues were amazed at his work and then they called the manager who was also excited. In 2015, he left the work and the next years saw his journey as a full-time artist.

The beginning was not a bed of roses for the artist. He had not undergone any formal training nor did he know how to market his works. He has managed to break through and is renowned for what he does. Percy draws portraits of celebrities using thousands of tiny white grains.

The talent also makes use of charcoal and touches of colors to draw images of people. On 12 September he attempted a Guinness World Record title for largest coffee grounds mosaic. He was a recipient of the award of the Guinness World Record title for the largest coffee grounds mosaic of Black Coffee.

Personal Life

Maimela rather talks about his career, he is also a father to a son. He rather remains cagey about his love life, baby mama, and girlfriend. He is prominent for using salt to create portraits of his muses.

Social Media

In the corner of the social media will find his artworks displayed. He takes his work to the internet and has gained more reach. On Instagram, shares pictures of beautiful artworks and the making of these works.

On 9 August 2021, Percy shared a picture to wish the beautiful women of South Africa a “Happy National Woman’s Day”. The portraits have a lot to tell appreciating the women. A mother of six children, somewhere on a mask.

She carried two on her arms and the another on her shoulder, one was getting a suck. Other children held unto her legs. While sometimes, his work could appear in the size of a wall-size portrait, other times, it appears in a carpet size.

He has over 12.5k followers on Instagram, 41.5k on Facebook, and 1.6k on Twitter.

Net Worth

His work has been offered at auction severally, the price range it realized is between $1,050 – $1,709. The record price for his work at auction is $1,709 for When I Rise, We Rise. The work was sold at Strauss & Co. in Cape Town South Africa.

Leave a Reply