15 Black South African Women Artists (Painters) You Should Know

 

This compilation of black women artists, emanates from the misconception that there are very few practicing women artists in South Africa. The way the visual art structure is designed, only few black artists make it to the top let alone black women artists. I would like to honor and celebrate these artists and share their work with general public who may not have known them before. I say with this blog post, KNOW THEIR NAMES and CHECK OUT MORE OF THEIR WORKS ONLINE. The following artists are arranged in no chronological order. Suffice to say there are still many more.

Helen Sebidi, detail of The Dispossessed, 2011-2012. Acrylic on canvas. 165 x 220 cm. All images courtesy of the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg.

1. Helen Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Mmakgato 

Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmangankato Helen Sebidi (5 March 1943) is a South African artist born in Marapyane (Skilpadfontein) near Hamanskraal, Pretoria. She lives and works in Johannesburg. Sebidi's work has been represented in private and public collections, including at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and New York the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, New York, and the World Bank. Her work has been recognised internationally and locally.In 1989 she won the Standard Bank Young Artist award, becoming the first black woman to win the award. In 2004, President Thabo Mbeki awarded her the Order of Ikhamanga in Silver. In 2011, she was awarded the Arts and Culture Trust (ACT) Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art, whilst in 2015 she received the Mbokodo Award. In September 2018, Sebidi was honoured with one of the first solo presentations at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town – a retrospective entitled Batlhaping Ba Re. Looking at her work, I once reflected that: 'Sebidi challenges accepted societal norms and brings into question the interpretation of art itself. Why is it that she cannot develop her own style and practice, distinct from others?'

Ndebele Homestead, 2005. Pic Credit Artsy

2. Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu

Esther Nikwambi Mahlangu was born on 11 November 1935 in a farm located outside of Middelburg, Mpumalanga, South Africa. Mahlangu began painting from young age and was taught the skill of mural painting by her mother and grandmother, following a tradition of her native South Ndebele people for women and girls to paint the exterior of houses. It is in this cultural tradition where Mahlangu first began her artistic journey.  Mme Mahlangu has collaborated extensively, reflecting on one such collaboration Carol Bouwer said "What an exciting time for us to share this bag with the collectors of Mam' Esther’s art, our bag collectors, and the art world at large. The collection is testament to Africa's endowment and beauty, and tribute to the fact that luxury is not foreign to our land. Each bag is a proud display of African ‘craftswomanship’ and pioneering in the sense that luxury local fashion can now be regarded as a collector’s item.”

Lonely Socialite Seeks Companion, Mixed Media. Pic from Khan's Website

3. Sharlene Khan 

Born in Durban in 1977, Sharlene Khan completed both a BA (Fine Arts) and MA (Fine Arts) at the University of Durban-Westville, before moving to Johannesburg to complete a second Masters degree in Fine Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand. She has exhibited in group exhibitions in Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Switzerland, India, France, USA, Sweden and Holland, and has held solo shows in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Since 2002 she has participated in international residency programmes and visual art workshops in Cape Town, Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Cairo, France and Italy. Her work for over eleven years has focused on street trade and the large informal economy in South African city centres. Although primarily a painter, Khan's paintings are often presented with a range of media resulting in installations and performance pieces incorporating fashion, music, video, ink and charcoal drawings in mock fashion presentations.

Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela, 2015 – 2016, Watercolour on A3 Fabriano paper. Courtesy Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela

4. Senzeni Marasela 

Senzeni Marasela (11 February 1977) is a South African visual artist born in Thokoza who works across different media, combining performance, photography, video, prints, textiles and embroidery in mixed-medium installations. She obtained a BA in Fine Arts at the Wits School of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1998. Her work is exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the United States, and part of local and international collections, including Museum of Modern Art or the Newark Museum and is referenced in numerous academic papers, theses journal and book publications.

"I'm a Lady" (2009) by Mary Sibande Credit: Mary Sibande

5. Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande (born 11 April 1982) is a South African artist based in Johannesburg. Her art consists of sculptures, paintings, photography, and design. Sibande uses these mediums and techniques to help depict the human form and explore the construction of identity in a postcolonial South African context. In addition, Sibande focuses on using her work to show her personal experiences through Apartheid. Her art also attempts to critique stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women. 

Boiling Point, collage, 94 x 149cm, 2001

6. Bongi Bengu 

Bongi Bengu was born in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal in 1970. Bengu received her BA (Fine Arts)(cum laude) from Mount Vernon College, Washington DC, USA in 1993 and in 1997, her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town. Bengu lives and works in Johannesburg. Bengu's work, Boiling Point, features jazz musicians: Dolly Rathebe; Dorothy Masuku; Kippy Moeketsi and beauty queen, singer and actress Hazel Futa. Using African-Americans as role models, blacks adopted Western practices in order to claim equality with whites in the 1950s. For the first time there were so-called 'beauty queens' and beauty contests. The beauty of the era cannot be more aptly described than with the photograph of singer Miriam Makeba rehearsing in her studio, her full skirt swirling and her face jubilant. Writing about Bengu's work, 

Fields, woman and cows, 1964. Pic Credit Mutual Art

7. Gladys Nomfanekiso Mgudlandlu

Gladys Nomfanekiso Mgudlandlu (1917 — 17 February 1979) was a South African artist and educator. Noted as one of the first African women in South Africa to hold a solo exhibition, she was a pioneer in visual arts in her country, for which she was given the Presidential Order of Ikhamanga in Silver. She drew influences from her cultural background and the landscape around her. Writing about Mgudlandlu's work in 2019, Khanya Mashabela said "It is part of the Mgudlandlu legend that she would paint by paraffin lamp in her home at night after teaching, even after she had gained access to electricity. This choice is visible in her paintings, through her shadowy use of light in contrast to vibrant color. Another part of Mgudlandlu’s artistic legend was her relationship with birds, often depicted in her paintings. She came to be referred to as uNontaka – the Bird Lady." 

Noria Mabasa metano figurines (1984), smoke-fired clay.

8. Noria Mabasa 

Noria Mabasa was born Noria Muelelwa Luvhimbi on May 10, 1938 in Shigalo village, Limpopo. She was the third child born in her family with two older sisters. In 1955, she married Jim Mabasa who was from Ha-Mutsha village, Limpopo. She separated from Jim Mabasa in 1965 after she fell ill with a mysterious illness. He was impatient with her and ordered her to leave his home. She went back to Shigalo village. Mabasa currently resides at the Tshino village in Venda, where she runs an art school in which she instructs her students in the art of clay-pot and sculpture making. She began working with clay in 1974 and two years later, in 1976, she became the first Tsonga woman to work in wood. "Mabasa’s carvings depict Venda mythology and spirituality, as well as portraying traditional ceremonies and the daily lives of those in her community: women, children and babies. She explores the hardships women suffered under apartheid: violence, loss and displacement, while dealing with themes of race and gender. Her art depicts the realities of life in the rural area and works towards social transformation," -  The Journalist

© Nandipha Mntambo Umfanekiso wesibuko (Mirror image), 2013

9. Nandipha Mnthambo 

Nandipha Mntambo was born in Swaziland, Southern Africa, in 1982. She graduated with a master's degree in Fine Art (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in June 2007. She lives and works in South Africa. "Art collectors have picked up her works — which also include video, photography, painting and performance art — at art fairs like Art Basel, Paris Internationale and the New York Armory Show and in biennales from Venice to Sydney, Australia, to Dakar, Senegal. She has also been part of group exhibitions around the world," - New York Times

The walk-in vagina erected by artist Reshma Chhiba at the Women’s Jail at Constitutional Hill in Braamfontein. Picture: Masego Rahlaga/EWN

10. Reshma Chhiba

Reshma Chhiba is a visual artist and dancer based in Johannesburg, who is interested in the intersection between contemporary visual art and classical Indian dance practices in South Africa. Chhiba is the co-founder and Creative Director of Sarvavidya Natyaalaya and also serves as Exhibitions Curator at the Wits School of Arts. "The shrill soundtrack that assaults visitors as they stroll through the tunnel is a revolt against the women's jail, built in 1909, that held some of South Africa's leading anti-apartheid activists," - IOL

11. Bongiwe Dhlomo-Mautloa

 Bongiwe Dhlomo-Mautlou was born in Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, 1956.  is a creative director, independent arts consultant, curator, cultural activist and artist who grounds her art in the socialist-realist and the political. Her linocuts and woodcuts explore a wide range of issues, ranging from political events such as the 1976 Soweto uprising to portrayals of the daily life of working South African women. In the 1980s and 1990s, the artist was pivotal in the development of several visual arts projects, including the Thupelo Art Workshops, Alexandra Arts Centre, FUBA and later THUPELO art gallery. Dhlomo-Mautloa co-authored Soweto: A South African Legend with Annette Braun (Arnoldsche, 2001). She also contributed to the Second Johannesburg Biennale catalogue titled Trade Routes: History and Geography (Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council and Prince Claus Fund, 1997) and Africus: Johannesburg Biennale (Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council, 1995). She holds a Fine Arts diploma in printmaking from the ELC Art and Craft Centre Rorke’s Drift, South Africa (1979).

Sibu 2007 Pic Credit NontsikelelioVeleko

12. Nontsikelelo Veleko

Nontsikelelo Veleko was born on (19 August 1977 in Bodibe, North West (South African province). She studied from 1995 to 2003 at the Cape Teknion in Cape Town and attended Luhlaza High School in Khayelitsha. In 1995, she studied graphic design at the Cape Technikon. After moving to Johannesburg, she studied photography at the Market Theatre Photo Workshop (1999–2004), the institution that was organized by David Goldblatt, who provide the formal training to young photographers. She is the Standard Bank Youn Artist Award Winner. "Veleko’s work presents a strong statement of a younger generation that is loud, self-expressive and daring; a collection of youth she strongly relates to. Such sentiments are evident in the photographs resulting from what she considers to be a ‘collaborative process" - Afronova

Image from 'Thief' exhibition by Anastasia Pather at 99 Loop Gallery, Cape Town.

13. Anastasia Pather 

Anastasia Pather was born in 1987. She lives and works in Johannesburg as a finger painter. She is interested in value, rejection and production. Concerned with surface, gender and value, Pather enjoys the ambiguity of double meanings and innuendo. Somehow, her paintings consider the complicated relationship between exoticism, eroticism and history, which generally confuses how she feels about culture, inheritance and love. Pather completed her first solo show ‘Meeting you’ at 99 Loop Gallery in 2016 and returned to the space for follow-up solo shows titled ‘Everything must go’ in 2017, 'Pretty Face' in 2018 and 'Thief' in 2020.

Soil, Dust Life Installation by Dineo Seshee Bopape. Credit Charles Benton

14. Dineo Seshee Bopape 

Bopape was born in Polokwane, South Africa, in 1981. She studied painting and sculpture at the Durban Institute of Technology, and graduated from De Ateliers in Amsterdam in 2007. In 2010 she completed an MFA at Columbia University in New York. Among other venues, Bopape's work has been shown at the New Museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and the 12th Biennale de Lyon. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted at Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam; Kwazulu Natal Society of Arts, Durban; and Palais de Tokyo. Bopape was the winner of the 2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award, the recipient of a 2010 Columbia University Toby Fund Awards, the 2017 Sharjah Biennial Prize, and the winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017. In 2018 she was part of the 10th Berlin Biennale, curated by Gabi Ngcobo and a curatorial team that includes Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Serubiri Moses, Thiago de Paula Souza and Yvette Mutumba. Her installation, entitled Untitled (Of Occult Instability) [Feelings], 2016–18 was located in the lower level of the KW Institute for Contemporary Art. Set among debris, and made specially for the biennale, the work was bathed in orange light and includes among its videos a film about a white man raping a black woman and clips of legendary artist Nina Simone’s mental breakdown on stage. Her work in the collection of the Tate.

Asasibambe Ngani? (Still Binding?), 2013, Digital print on archival Litho paper, 60 x 80 cm.

15. Nomusa Makhubu

Nomusa Makhubu was born in 1984, Vaal Triangle, South Africa; lives in Cape Town.Nomusa Makhubu’s artistic practice explores the construction of identities through colonial histories and presents, using photographic self-portraiture, projection and collage. Holding a PhD in Art History and a rich publication record, Makhubu is also a leading pedagogical and curatorial presence in the African arts scene. She is an Associate Professor in Art History at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town (UCT), and Deputy Dean of Transformation at the university.