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Sam Nhlengethwa

Selected Artworks

Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Work: 140 x 120 x 10 cm
Unavailable
Mixed media on canvas
Work: 120 x 220 cm
Unavailable
Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Mixed media on canvas
Work: 100 x 140 x 10 cm
Unavailable
Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Work: 80 x 71 x 10 cm
Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Three colour lithograph
Paper: 76 x 57 cm
Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Acrylic, oil and collage on canvas
Work: 120 x 140 x 10 cm
Unavailable
Mixed media on canvas
Work: 130 x 110 cm
Unavailable
Lithograph
49.5 x 69 cm
Unavailable
Hand-woven mohair tapestry
Work: 267 x 200 cm

About

Sam Nhlengethwa image

Sam Nhlengethwa (b. 1955, Payneville, Springs) part of a pioneering generation of late 20th century South African artists whose work reflects the sociopolitical history and everyday life of their country. Through his paintings, collages and prints Nhlengethwa has depicted the evolution of Johannesburg through street life, interiors, jazz musicians and fashion.

Nhlengethwa was born in the Black township community of Payneville near Springs (a satellite mining town east of Johannesburg), in 1955 and grew up in Ratanda location in nearby Heidelberg. In the 1980s, he moved to Johannesburg where he honed his practice at the renowned Johannesburg Art Foundation under its founder Bill Ainslie. Nhlengethwa is one of the founders of the legendary Bag Factory, in Newtown, in the heart of the Johannesburg CBD, where he used to share studio space with fellow greats of this pioneering generation of South African artists, such as David Koloane and Pat Mautloa.

In 2014, a major survey exhibition, titled Life, Jazz and Lots of Other Things, was hosted by SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, which was then co-hosted in Atlanta by SCAD and the Carter Center.

Nhlengethwa’s practice features in important arts publications, such as Phaidon’s The 20th Century Art Book (2001).

Other notable exhibitions and accolades in South Africa and around the world include: in 1994 – the year South Africa held its first democratic elections – Nhlengethwa was awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award; in 1995, his work was included in the Whitechapel Gallery’s Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa in London; in 2000, he participated in a two-man show at Seippel Art Gallery in Cologne.

Group exhibitions include: Constructions: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Niteroi, Brazil (2011); Beyond Borders: Global Africa, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Michigan (2018).

Biennales include: 6th Beijing Biennale in (2015); 55th Venice Biennale, as part of the South African Pavilion, titled Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive (2013); 12th International Cairo Biennale (2010); 8th Havana Biennale (2003); Southern African Stories: A Print Collection, CCA (Caribbean Contemporary Arts), Trinidad (2002).

Collections include: Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Durban Art Gallery (DAG), Iziko South African National Art Gallery (ISANG), Standard Bank’s Head Office, Absa, Botswana Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, amongst many in South Africa and abroad.

Nhlengethwa lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Download full CV

Exhibitions

New York Gallery
12 December - 31 January 2025
Johannesburg Gallery
23 November - 21 December 2024

Films

Press & News

press

Sam Nhlengethwa’s latest show heralds albinism and fashion, with print and paint works that veer away from his usual collages, writes Tymon Smith

news

Phaidon has launched an A-Z survey of the work of over 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Africa on 17 October. The publication features Goodman Gallery artists ruby onyinyechi am...


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