BIOGRAPHY
(b. 1982 Mbabane, Swaziland)
Nandipha Mntambo completed a Master’s in Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2007. She is currently based in Johannesburg. Mntambo originally intended to study forensic pathology, but found her way to Fine Arts in an unusual, but fortunate, shift in her career trajectory. Within her sculpture, photography, video and mixed media works, Mntambo’s acute interest in the human body is evident.
Mntambo is perhaps best known for her cowhide sculptures (with the cured hide draped over human forms and set with resin) which confront and question the relationship between humans and animals. These investigations into organic nature and the corporeal address performance, gender, identity, life and death.
She states:
‘My intention is to explore the physical and tactile properties of hide and aspects of control that allow or prevent me from manipulating this material in the context of the female body and contemporary art. I have used cowhide as a means to subvert expected associations with corporeal presence, femininity, sexuality and vulnerability. The work I create seeks to challenge and subvert preconceptions regarding representation of the female body.
‘Themes of confrontation, protection and refuge play out particularly in relation to inner conflicts and to notions of self-love/hatred. The bronze, Sengifikile, uses my own features as a foundation, but takes on the guise of a bull. Referencing the head-and-shoulder busts of the Renaissance tradition, I challenge male and female roles in society and expected associations with femininity, sexuality and vulnerability.’
In 2017, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa presented Material Value, a solo exhibition of her work, including the impressive installation of the work EMABUTFO (2012) in which dozens of hide/human spectres were suspended in mid-air, occupying the gallery room in their haunting formation. Her bronze sculpture, Ophelia (2015) is featured in the sculpture garden of the Norval Foundation in Cape Town, as a permanent acquisition in the institution’s collection.
In 2011, Mntambo won the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, for which she produced the travelling exhibition Faena.
She was shortlisted for the AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize in Canada (2014), was a Civitella Ranieri Fellow (2013), and received the Wits/BHP Billiton Fellowship (2010).
Solo exhibitions
2023
Chimera, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Agoodjie, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Transcending Instinct, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
The snake you left inside me, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
Material Value, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Love and its companions, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden
Metamorphoses, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2014
Transience, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
Nandipha Mntambo, Zeitz MOCAA Pavilion, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town, South Africa
Nandipha Mntambo, Andrehn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden
2012
Faena, Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bloemfontein; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; University of Potchefstroom Art Gallery, South Africa
The Unspoken, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2011
Faena, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Durban Art Gallery, South Africa
2009
Umphatsi Wemphi, Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Encounter, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2007
Ingabisa, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected group exhibitions
2024
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
In Brilliant Light, curated by Azu Nwagbogu, Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands
2023
What I Feel When I Think About The Cosmos, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
FNB ArtJoburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
FNB ArtJoburg, with Everard Read Johannesburg, South Africa
ARCO Fair, with Everard Read, Lisbon, Portugal
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
OZANGÉ, Biennale of African Photography, Malaga, Spain
Ancestors & Dreams in African Art, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa & Jacaranda, NY, USA
2021
Oasis: 25th anniversary exhibition, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa
Offering, Everard Read, Franschhoek, South Africa
2020
Contemporary Female Identities in the Global South, Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation, South Africa
Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa TINY2020, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa
2019
Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Speculative Inquiry #1 (On abstraction), Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa
IncarNations: African Art as Philosophy, BOZAR Centre for Arts, Brussels, Belgium
Personal Structures – Identities, European Cultural Centre - Italy, Venice, Italy
Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA
2018
City Deep, The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg South Africa
Dance Africa Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, USA
Beyond Borders: Global Africa, University of Michigan Museum of Art, USA
Both, and, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Norval Sculpture Garden, Norval Foundation, Tokai, South Africa
Sculpture, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius Not A Single Story, Nirox Winter Sculpture Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
Nandipha Mntambo and Per B Sundberg, Galerie Hervé van der Straeten, Paris, France
Afrique Capitales, La Vilette/ Paris, France
When the Heavens Meet the Earth: Selected Works from the Sina Jina Collection of Contemporary Art, Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge, UK
Jaguars and Electric Eels, Julia Stoschek Collection, Berlin, Germany
Regarding Africa: Contemporary Art and Afro-Futurism, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel
The Future is Female, 21c Museum Hotel, Louisville, USA
2016
Dak’Art, 12th Dakar Biennale, Senegal
Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Fowler Museum, UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, Los Angeles, USA
2015
The Film Will Always Be You: South African Artists on Screen, Tate Modern, London, UK Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, Seattle Art Museum, USA
What remains is tomorrow, South African Pavilion, 56th Venice Biennale, Italy
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC, USA
Barriers: Contemporary South Africa, Wanås Konst, Southern Sweden
2014
Performance Now, Queensland University of Technology Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Chroma, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
One Man's Trash (Is Another Man's Treasure), The Danjuma Collection 33 Fitzroy Square, London, UK
AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada
2013
A Sculptural Premise, Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
My Joburg, La Maisone Rouge, Paris, France
Female Power: Matriarchy, Spirituality and Utopia, Arnhem Museum, Arnhem, the Netherlands
Material Matters: New Art from Africa, Institute of Contemporary Art Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius
From Sitting to Selfie: 300 Years of South African Portraits, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, MMK (Museum für Moderne Kunst), Frankfurt, Germany; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA
To Be Real – Performance and Performativity, Videonale.14 Elektronenströme, Videonale E.V, IM Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
2012
The Rainbow Nation, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, the Netherlands
3rd Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia
Viewpoint: A Closer Look at Showing, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Mine – A selection of films by SA artists, Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2011
ARS 11, Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
Contemporary South African Artists, Turner Galleries, Perth, Australia
Mine – A selection of films by SA artists, Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany
2010
PEEKABOO: Current South Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland
Ampersand, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
The Beauty of Distance: Song of survival in a precarious age, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia
Space: Currencies in contemporary African art, Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dak’Art, 9th Dakar Biennale, Senegal
Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Ffotogallery, Cardiff, Wales The Good Old Days, Aarhus Art Building, Denmark
Hautnah: Hair in art and culture, Kunstverein Leonberg, Germany
Toros! Works from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, Galerie Sophie Scheidecker, Paris, France She Devil, Studio Stefania Miscetti, Rome, Italy
2009
Hautnah: Hair in art and culture, Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany
Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography, Bamako, Mali
Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK
La modernité dans l'art africain d'aujourd'hui, Panafrican Cultural Festival of Algiers, Algeria Undercover: Performing and Transforming Black Female Identities, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Works from the 2008 Dak'art biennale, ifa Gallery, Berlin; Stuttgart, Germany
Number Two: Fragile, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany
Why not?, Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany
Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
2008
Summer 2008/9: Projects, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Disturbance: Contemporary art from Scandinavia and South Africa, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Dak'art, Dakar Biennale, Senegal
Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA
Skin-to-skin: Challenging textile art, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
.za: giovane arte dal Sudafrica, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
The Trickster, ArtExtra, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
Summer 2007/8, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, Spain Afterlife, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Olvida quien soy - Erase me from who I am, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
MTN New Contemporaries 2006, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa Second to None, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2005
In the Making: Materials and Process, Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Awards
2016
Creator Award | Glamour South Africa Women of the Year
2014
Shortlisted for the AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize, Canada
2012
Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art, South Africa 2010 Wits/BHP Billiton Fellowship, South Africa
2005
Curatorial Fellowship, Brett Kebble Art Awards, South Africa 2004 Mellon Meyers Fellowship, South Africa
2003
Mellon Meyers Fellowship, South Africa
Residencies
2013
Citivella Ranerie Residency, Umbertide, Italy
2013
The SPACES World Artists Program (SWAP), Cleveland, USA
