Atang Tshikare

Tshikare founded Zabalazaa Designs in 2010, and since then his studio has consulted for companies and brands such as Adidas, Belvedere, BMW, Dior, MTV, and Puma, as well developing and producing his sculptural designs and other commissions. was named one of the "Top 200 Young South Africans" in 2015, and dubbed the "Designer of the Day" by Surface magazine in 2020.

Tshikare's work has been exhibited in venues ranging from Milan's Salone del Mobile, to gallery shows such as Inside~Out 2024, in Brooklyn, New York, and art fairs such as Design Miami, and Design Days in Dubai. His work is held in private and public collections such as the Zeitz MOCCA in Cape Town, and the Metropolitan Museum, which in 2022 acquired a duo of his Mollo Oa Leifo chairs ( and ) for its Afrofuturist Period Room.

In 2025, Wanås Konst in Sweden installed Tshikare's mythical creature called Puruma in its Wanås Castle sculpture park. The title of the artwork means "roar" in Setswana, and the piece, which is situated on an island resembling a nest in a small pond, represents a hybrid animal with a lion-like body and the head of a King Protea–South Africa's national flower.

Also in 2025, Tshikare was invited to take part in the Tokai Project, the second edition of the Craft x Tech initiative in Japan. The programme is an exploration of how traditional "aesthetic sensibilities embedded in Japanese craft can be reimagined through a thoughtful and skilful creative process" and reinterpreted through the lens of contemporary technology. His work, a sculptural lighting piece incorporating ancient Iga Kumihimo silk braiding techniques, is titled Yamollo.

He has also participated in design juries, panels, workshops and symposia, and lectured widely in both South Africa and internationally.

Personal life Tshikare is married and has a son named Peo, which signifies "seed of great hope" in Sesotho. His wife is a sociolinguist at the University of Cape Town. Tshikare's works Peo e Atang and Pula e ya na are a tribute to their sons (the second of whom is called Pula Khanya, meaning "falling rain and light").