NANDIPHA MNTAMBO

(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

2022     Agoodjie, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

            Transcending Instinct, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa

2021     Agoodjie, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa

'LA MATIÈRE VIVANTE' Donna Kukama and Nandipha Mntambo, curated by Simon Njami, Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy

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

2022   FNB ArtJoburg, 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

2021   OASIS, Everard Read, Cape Town, 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

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, 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