ARTISTS
Rootformula works with artists across contemporary art, music, sound, design and interdisciplinary practice. We build relationships with creative practitioners whose work reflects distinct perspectives, cultural knowledge and new ways of seeing and experiencing the world. Through collaboration, residencies, exhibitions, recordings and shared projects, we support artists in developing their practice, connecting with new audiences and exploring possibilities across disciplines and borders.
Lerato Ntsane Lichaba is a prominent South African guitarist, composer, and cultural conceptualist born and raised in Mzimhlophe, Soweto. After teaching himself guitar at age 16, he initially immersed himself in the deep house scene, studying music software management before transitioning into live performance and heritage preservation. He is widely recognized for his work bridging traditional African musical lineages with contemporary urban subcultures.
Beyond his career as a performer, he is a dedicated community organizer and cultural archivist. He founded the House of Kuumba in Soweto, transforming it into a creative sanctuary, vinyl archiving hub, and safe space that empowers local youth and fosters artistic collaboration.
Neo Trinity Rakgajane is a designer who uses creativity to inform, entertain or persuade and has been in the Design field since 1996. He began his creative life as a painter and illustrator, attended prelim years at the AAA school and ML Sultan then went on to train as a Graphic Design-
er at FCB Lindsay Smithers under Iaan Bekker. Neo has been fortunate enough to work for amongst others: FCB, EnterpriseIG, HKLM and Leo Burnett. Some brands Neo has worked on include amongst others: Levi’s, Vodacom, MTN, TOYOTA. Neo was the major contributor in the design of the Nelson Mandela family crest and an assistant in the design of the South African Emblem. At the moment Neo also expresses himself as DJ PolyesterVelcro. He also sits on the MOAD Selection, Education & Events Sub-Committee.
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Anthony Oseyemi is an actor, writer, director, and producer who has theatre and performing arts training, holding a BA (Hons) in Performing Arts. He started his career on stage as part of Lewisham Youth Theatre, with performances at the Riverside and Tricycle as part
of the London International Festival of Theatre, and had stints at The Oval Theatre as a producer, actor, and playwright.
He is the director of ‘Dance of Death’, ‘Another Light’, ‘Pa$tor’, and the stage play ‘Breathe’. He is currently in development with the chase thriller ‘Runtime’, the African comedy ‘Professional Mourners’, and the fantasy thriller set in Nigeria and Brazil ‘Get Out or Die’ You can see him on the big screen in International Feature Film Hunting Jessica Brok.
Obinna Elechi is a designer and artist working on interiors, furniture, art and architecture projects. Obinna is from Nigeria, grew up in Holland and came to the United States, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech and a Master of Architecture from Parsons School of Design.
He has previously worked on a range of projects for organizations including the Rural Studio, Gensler, MoMA and Soho House.
Adaeze Elechi is a Nigerian writer and award-winning filmmaker whose works interrogate concepts of belonging and alienation, memory and identity, and trauma and healing. Her work and ideas aim to deconstruct and redefine the concept of “Home” beyond geographical location and search for broader, deeper definitions of belonging that transcend physical borders.
In her explorations and storytelling, she employs varied combinations of traditional documentary and experimental filmmaking techniques (using new and archival media), audio storytelling, and poetry, memoir, and fiction writing. She conducts in-depth cultural, historical, and journalistic research, and brings the gathered data to life through intimate interviews, verité scenes, portraiture, and writing with people living lives connected to the concepts she is exploring.
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Emalohi Iruobe is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and community organizer whose practice examines the ideological perspectives of African women. Trained as a lawyer, her artistic work manifests through a variety of media, including sculpture, performance, film, installation, and assemblage. A central element of her work is the use of cloth, sourced from her late mother's personal wardrobe and belongings, as a medium to illuminate the often-unseen labor, obscured narratives, contributions, and humanity of African women. Her art serves as a tribute to her late mother, as well as a celebration of contemporary women, fostering a dialogue across generations.
Emalohi's work explores themes of family, history, ancestral veneration, and indigenous knowledge. Her process involves engaging with a personal archive of textiles known in Nigeria as "aso-ebi" collected by her mother between 1980 and 2013, while simultaneously building a new archive through participatory interventions that generate exercises geared at cultivating memorials, meditations and systems for recording personal history as a guide for future African generations.
Adey Omotade is a Yoruba interdisciplinary artist, composer, and curator whose practice explores the intersection of sound, ritual, and cultural memory. Drawing on Yoruba cosmology, archival oral traditions, and indigenous instrumentation, Omotade creates immersive and participatory works that investigate listening as a sensory, spatial, and relational act.
His compositions and installations engage themes of migration, ecology, and decolonial museology, combining field recordings, ambisonic sound design, and experimental electronic textures. Projects such as Niri: A Yoruba Afro-House project and Irin Aajo have been presented internationally and reflect his commitment to reactivating embodied knowledge through contemporary media.