As in the case of the other black artists whose work was accepted for the 1971 Art: South Africa'. Today exhibition, Cyprian Shilakoe's work was not overtly political. He had a number of works accepted on the exhibition - Conspiracy, Where have they gone to? and Can you see the Grave Child - and expressed an often mystical and depressing view of life which continued to show in his later work.

While a student at Rorke's Drift Art School from 1968 to 1970, he sold his work through the African Art Centre. In 1972, after he died in a car accident, a small commemorative exhibition of Shilakoe's etchings was arranged at the Centre in his memory. Among the titles were Please Come Back, Please Open the Gate, and a particularly poignant one He May Come Mother, again a reflection of the lives of black people in South Africa.

By the time of his death, Shilakoe was recognised as an important graphic artist. In 1991 a retrospective exhibition of his work was featured at the Grahamstown Arts Festival.