Garth Wareley, who also goes by AwehMigo, is a Painter and visual artist from Cape Town, South Africa. Having worked with a multitude of acclaimed brands such as; Media24, RedBull, Distell, UCT Graduate School of Business, Design Indaba, Swish Properties and many others, Garth has more than 15 years of experience in design, graffiti, visual identity, creative direction and of course, painting. His style is easily identifiable with semi-realistic visuals, bold colours and balancing tones, often being described as a window into a novel or another world. His work can be seen on walls and buildings across Cape Town, with his iconic weaver inspired paintings adding colour and beauty all the way from Observatory to the CBD.
His passion for painting began during his early years of attending high school at Zonnebloem Nest. Inspired by the local Kwaito and HipHop culture which Cape Town exuded at the time, drawing and painting became an integral part of his life. Since then, he’s painted multiple awe-inspiring pieces across not-only the Mother City, but the country as a whole. Some of which include a mural of Mama Winnie Mandela, painted in her honour and commissioned by the ANC, just after her passing in 2018. Another meaningful project was the Flat Lands Tour where Wareley travelled to Clarens in the Free State with three other artists to exhibit their work at a new gallery, but also to make art more accessible to the communities in the surrounding areas. Both of these examples illustrate Wareley’s ambition to break down barriers and to redefine norms within the industry.
By way of formal training, Garth has qualifications from both Ruth Prowse School of Art and Concept Interactive, in Graphic Design and Interactive Media respectively. His early work includes painting backboards for various South African TV shows, doing multiple visual activations for Red Bull at Plett Rage and Redbull Amaphiko, taking part in the Converse ClashWall activation in 2014 and doing a range of personal projects for clients - painting murals in their homes, offices and other spaces.
Some of his later work includes being the lead artist for the film “Bring It On World Wide”, taking part in the Halls South Africa “Own The Moment” campaign and doing Live Art installations for Design Indaba. Wareley has also exhibited his work multiple times over the years, including shows titled “Exploration of Vriet a Kak” and “The Reason Why”.
When asked about what makes him different to other artists and why he loves what he does, Wareley cites his obsession with getting a job done the right way, no matter what. Every piece of work is a challenge, a challenge to fight the weather, a challenge to push his physical limits and a challenge to expand his mental outlook. While being hugely inspired by nature, everything about painting also motivates him; the ability to play between reality and fiction, the way an artist's body moves when they paint and being able to mold his own story through his work.
Apart from painting, Garth is also a business owner at Huiskind Studios, a father, a husband and an avid bird rearer.