Folktales & Syncretic Play: The Many Myths of Keya Tama
Written by Maria Yigouti
Published on February 9th, 2026
It is through counter-chronologies and cultural assemblages that Keya Tama reframes contemporary animism beyond its primitivist classification.
Rather than relying on loose collage, Keya Tama work arrives at a chronotopic grasp of abstracted folktales: imagery that feels immediately legible yet ultimately unplaceable.
Refreshingly free from referential dependency or forced correspondence, Tama’s practice sidesteps the usual hegemonic divides: ancient versus contemporary, symbolic versus mundane. The result is an intuitive rather than illustrative visual language: expansive, resolutely minimalistic, yet never monolithic.
A pictorial singularity, the South African–born, New York–based artist actively cultivates through cross-disciplinary collaborations, encounters, and travels, arranging commonalities into monomyths across coasts, cities, walls, and ceramics alike.
A pictorial singularity, the South African–born, New York–based artist actively cultivates through cross-disciplinary collaborations, encounters, and travels, arranging commonalities into monomyths across coasts, cities, walls, and ceramics alike. With a whole host of projects already in the pipeline, Keya Tama continues to add new strings to his bow, and it’s safe to say he is one to watch.
Maria Yigouti: You grew up with two powerhouse artistic voices, your mom, Faith XLVII, and your dad, Tyler B Murphy. Did being an artist feel inevitable, or did you ever think about stepping off that path?
Keya Tama:
Creativity was never separate from thinking for me.
Creativity was never separate from thinking for me. Making was simply how ideas moved from imagination into physical form. To think meant to build, test, and translate thought into material language. As a kid, I moved fluidly between music, animation, film, drawing, and writing stories and comics. That instinct never felt strategic or career-driven. It was intuitive, almost bodily. My practice still moves across mediums, though murals and painting have become the primary focus. Art was never a career decision so much as a necessity shaped by environment and inner compulsion.
Maria Yigouti: You started painting walls at thirteen and left your mark on the Berlin Wall at fifteen. What was it like having your work occupy such monumental space at that age?
Keya Tama: There was a sharp mix of excitement and quiet satisfaction in working at that scale. Those spaces felt unreal to occupy, like stepping into a daydream. Experiences like that pushed me to think expansively, but what continues to guide me is a shift in attention. Rather than asking what I can become through the work, I ask what the work itself wants to become, and how I can support that process.
Maria Yigouti: Your influences span ancient art, cartoons, skate culture, and graffiti. How do you balance those playful roots with the emotional weight of the symbolic motifs you explore today?
Keya Tama: My process involves constant collecting. I photograph abandoned buildings, gather reference books, and note fragments of language, wall markings, color systems, and patterns from everyday environments.
Time feels less linear to me and more like a river where past and present flow together. I do not believe in a stable present culture, only personal translations of memory and immediacy.
Time feels less linear to me and more like a river where past and present flow together. I do not believe in a stable present culture, only personal translations of memory and immediacy. Working from intuition allows emotion to function as a durable and human language, especially in a moment defined by visual excess and unstable information.
Maria Yigouti: You’ve coined the term “Ancient Contemporary Minimalism” and describe your work as “abstracted folktales.” How does that translate on the wall?
Keya Tama: I see the contemporary world as a living mythology without shared agreements around meaning. The symbols exist, but the narratives are fragmented. My work draws from ancient iconography, restrained palettes, and symbolic systems that once held collective resonance, then repositions them within present-day environments. I allow each place to inform the imagery, borrowing local symbols, sayings, and atmospheres that overlap with personal emotion. The aim is continuity rather than preservation.
Maria Yigouti: Humans, animals, and nature thread through your murals like characters in symbolic stories. Do you see yourself more as a storyteller than a painter?
Keya Tama:
Emotion is the primary driver. Any artist becomes a storyteller through emotional transmission alone, whether or not a literal narrative is present.
Emotion is the primary driver. Any artist becomes a storyteller through emotional transmission alone, whether or not a literal narrative is present. I write alongside my visual practice, but the story often exists beneath the surface rather than being illustrated directly.
Maria Yigouti: Your murals explore connection, family, travel, and homecoming. How do you make these universal experiences resonate in public spaces?
Keya Tama: I draw from the visual language of each site, including patterns, archetypal forms, architectural rhythms, agriculture, and animals. Sometimes conversations or workshops with local communities inform the work. This grounding allows the murals to feel specific while still holding universal emotional weight.
Maria Yigouti: You’ve moved across murals, illustration, textiles, and digital media. When you shifted from spray cans to embroidery, what did that tactile change teach you?
Keya Tama: Tactile processes slow the body and recalibrate the ego. They demand patience and attentiveness. I am drawn to mediums often categorized as craft, such as embroidery or ceramics, because they carry deep cultural and emotional intelligence. At their highest level, I see no hierarchy between art, craft, and design. Sometimes the human hand, especially when working intuitively, communicates more directly than polished systems ever could.
Maria Yigouti: Black and white dominated your visual language for years. Now your palette leans toward muted, sun-faded tones. How intentional is that sense of time and erosion?
Keya Tama: Very intentional. I am interested in subtlety and balance, especially in public space. These colors sit comfortably within their environments and age with grace. They feel designed to fade rather than resist fading, allowing the work to settle into place over time.
Maria Yigouti: You’ve said murals come alive when people walk by and become part of the work. How do you approach engaging communities through public art?
Keya Tama:
Murals create a shared point of attention. They give people permission to speak to one another, sometimes to strangers. In that sense, the wall becomes a common ground. I often think of murals as a return to older impulses to decorate lived space with pattern, care, and meaning.
Maria Yigouti: Many of your murals exist in abandoned factories and forgotten buildings. What draws you to these spaces?
Keya Tama: These sites carry residue. They hold traces of labor, memory, and time through materials and fragments left behind. There is also a freedom in working there that often leads to the most honest work. I enjoy making these spaces feel worth visiting again, inviting people to re-engage with places that might otherwise be overlooked.
Maria Yigouti: You’ve talked about making art functional, non-elitist, and part of everyday life. How do you bring an animist perspective to your murals?
Keya Tama: I approach animism as a relational practice rather than a symbolic one. Architectural surfaces are not neutral. They already carry weather, history, and use. My role is to respond rather than impose. I often access this perspective through a childlike attentiveness, where curiosity, play, and respect for nature exist without hierarchy. The imagery functions as a refined vital language, suggesting breath, movement, and presence. Integrated into architecture, the work invites viewers to sense the built environment as alive and responsive.
Maria Yigouti: What’s lighting a fire under your practice right now?
Keya Tama: My focus is shifting toward collaboration across art, design, and architecture. I am interested in creating immersive, livable artworks in partnership with architects and developers. These are spaces meant to be experienced rather than simply viewed. The aim is to dissolve disciplinary boundaries and create environments with emotional and material coherence. Jaime Hayon’s practice has been an important reference point in this direction.
Maria Yigouti is an independent editor, curator, and founder of Yapper, a platform dedicated to foregrounding the visual cultures and lived poetics of the Southlands. Based in Casablanca, Morocco, and with academic credentials in design and visual communication, her work spans editorial and curatorial practices, broadcasting voices outside the mainstream through cross-border collaborations and artistic exploration.