Nelson Makamo was born in Limpopo in 1982. He currently lives and works in Johannesburg. Makamo studied art at Artist Prof Studios in Johannesburg where he studied printmaking for 3 years. He has had solo exhibitions

He has had notable recognitions under his work one of them being feature on the cover of Time Magazine in 2018 for their Optimists issue and as well as being awarded the Vanguard Award from Harvard University