Noria Mabasa was born in 1938 in the Limpopo Province, South Africa. Noria Mabasa spent only one year in formal education, having to walk three hours to the nearest school.

Despite this lack of training, Mabasa began to experiment with clay in the 1970s. Initially, she produced Domba figures traditionally used in Venda initiation ceremonies. In her later work, she began to explore more contemporary themes, depicting people and objects that she encountered in daily life. The collection of figures was a mixture of military personnel and members of the medical profession.

Mabasa was the only Venda woman to achieve artistic acclaim during the period of Apartheid. Her works thus offer a uni...