Sam

Nhlengethwa:

Impressions

of

Senegal

Throughout his career, Sam Nhlengethwa has developed a signature collage and painting practice that explores everyday life, from urban existence to domestic spaces. His career, approach to artmaking and involvement in foundational institutions such as Bag Factory Artist Studios has contributed greatly to the South African arts landscape, making him one of the country’s seminal artists.

Nhlengethwa, born to a family of jazz and fashion lovers, is often encapsulated by his depictions of jazz and blues musicians. While important and inspirational subject matter for the artist, his multiple bodies of work throughout his five decade-long career explore city life and contemporaneity in a much wider sense. His most recent lithograph series ‘Senegal Sketches’, on view at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, demonstrates this.

The significance of these newer prints comes from an exploration of their predecessors from the 1990s. In 1994, and concurring with the new democracy in South Africa, Nhlengethwa was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts. This was backed by the international attention he received in the 1980s, with his works featured in group exhibitions across the United States, Germany and France. Nhlengethwa had also attended the Triangle International Artists Workshop in New York and received the Delfina Studio Trust Award in London.

1994 was also the year Nhlengethwa was selected to attend the Tenq Artists’ Workshop in Saint-Louis, Senegal. This workshop was the first AFRICA 95 event. It was at this workshop that he revisited abstraction, a mode of expression he was exposed to at the Thupelo Workshops; a series of workshops for black artists initiated in 1985 by David Koloane and Bill Ainslie. Influenced by the surroundings in Saint-Louis and the natural colours used by fellow artists at the workshop, he produced a series of abstract paintings. He also produced more figurative pieces like the watercolour and collage works ‘Conversation in Gorêe Island’ (1994) and ‘Conversation in Gorêe Island II’ (1995).

In 2024, Nhlengethwa returned to Senegal as one of the first artist-in-residence with the then newly established Gorée Historical Trust Society, a Washington, DC-based non-profit. Armed with the sketchbook, he walked the streets and beaches of Gorée, capturing his immediate responses to everyday life on the island. The ten black and white lithographs in Senegal Sketches is a selection from the artist’s sketches from that residency. View these works throughout August 2026 at Goodman Gallery Johannesburg.