Biography
Born in 1986 in Soweto, South Africa
Lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
Material, metaphor and the black body are the tools that Mohau Modisakeng uses to explore the influence of South Africa’s violent history that has been ignored in today’s society, on how we understand our cultural, political, and social roles as human beings in post-colonial Africa and in particular post-apartheid South Africa. Represented through film, large-scale photographic prints, installations and performances, his “work doesn’t start off with an attempt to portray violence but it becomes mesmerising because although we might recognise history as our past, the body is indifferent to social changes, so it remembers.”
Born in Soweto, an epicentre of black urbanity and cosmopolitan culture, the multi-award winning Mohau Modisakeng is a product of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art. Mentored by Jane Alexander and predominantly working and training in sculpture, he completed his undergraduate degree in 2009 then completed his Masters degree at the same institution. He was awarded the SASOL New Signatures Award for 2011 and has exhibited at Armory Show, New York (2016); Saatchi Gallery, London (2012); Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar (2012); Focus 11 and Basel (2011). In 2013 Modisakeng produced an ambitious new video work in association with Samsung as a special project for the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair. His work is included in public collections such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town and SAATCHI Gallery, London as well as significant private collections such as Zeitz MOCAA.
CV
Education
- 2015 Master of Art in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
- 2009 Bachelor of Art in Fine Art, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
Awards, Residencies & Commissions
- 2020 Nelson Mandela Monument, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2016 The Standart Bank Young Artist Award, Johannesburg, South Africa
- 2015 Nirox Foundation Residency, Johannesburg, South Africa
Segera Retreat and the Zeitz Foundation Residency, Segera, Kenya
- 2011 Winner, SASOL New Signatures Art Competition, Pretoria
IAAB – International Artists Exchange Program, Basel
- 2010 Finalist, MTN New Contemporaries Awards, Durban
Spier Residency Award, Gyeonggi Creation Center, South Korea - 2009 Merrill Lynch Scholarship, University of Cape Town, Cape Town
Solo Exhibitions
- 2022
Madimatle, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, NL
Passage, Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, USA
Shout Plenty, African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), Lagos, NG
The Water Drummer, The Well-being Summit, Bilbao, ES
Zion – The photography Show presented by AIPAD - 2021
Nelson Mandela Monument “RONE BATHO”, City of Amsterdam, NL
NIROX SCULPTURE PARK – PASSAGE and other works. Johannesburg, SA
Passage – Uncertain Horizon, The Museum Centre of Turku, FI - 2020
Frames’ Series, KUNSTRAUM INNSBRUCK, Innsbruck, AT
Passage, Oakland Museum of California, California, USA
Passage, Fotografiska Stockholm, Stockholm, SE
Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv, IL
A Promised Land, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, USA - 2019
Bagamoyo, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Land of Zanj, Leaving the Echo Chamber, Sharjah Biennial 14, UAE
Passage, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon, USA
Passage, Tai Kwun Centre for Arts, Hong Kong
Passage, The Rooms, Provincial Art Gallery NewFoundLand, Canada
Gabose gangwe, Video Brasil, Sao Paolo, Brazil - 2018
Zion, The Armory Show, Galerie Ron Mandos, New York City, USA
KIN, Sabrina Amrani, Madrid, Spain
Passage, Art Capital, Szentendre, Hungary
Passage, Spencer Museum, Kansas, USA
- 2017
Passage, The South African Pavilion, the 57th Venice Biennale, Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Zeitz Mocaa – Inaugural exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
Zion, PERFORMA17, New York, USA
Passage, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa
Passage, LOOP Video Art Fair, Galerie Ron Mandos, Barcelona, Spain
Solo presentation, Amsterdam Art Fair, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Solo presentation, Art Brussels, Galerie Ron Mandos, Brussels, Belgium
Lefa la Ntate, Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery, University of the Free State, South Africa
Lefa la Ntate, Tatham Art Gallery Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Lefa la Ntate, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa - 2016
Lefa la Ntate, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
Lefa la Ntate, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Lefa la Ntate, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, USA
BOPHIRIMA, solo exhibition, Tyburn Gallery, London, United Kingdom
ENDABENI, solo exhibition, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- 2015
Mohau Modisakeng, Chavonnes Battery Museum (in partnership with Zeitz MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa
KE KGOMO YA MOSHATE, Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
Mohau Modisakeng, Big Pond Artworks, Munich, Germany - 2014
Ditaola, BRUNDYN+, Cape Town, South Africa
VOLTA NY, BRUNDYN+, New York, USA
Inzilo, LOOP 2014, Barcelona, Spain
Loop Barcelona, Hotel Catalonia Ramblas, Barcelona, Spain
Mohau Modisakeng, Chavonnes Battery Museum, Cape Town, South Africa (in partnership with Zeitz MOCAA) - 2013
Inzilo, Video Art Powered by Samsung Special Project, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa - 2012
Sera, Master of Fine Art Exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Untitled: Sasol New Signatures Award for 2011, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa - 2010
Ibutho, Side Gallery, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa - 2009
Ugufa Unezindaba, Graduate Exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Group Exhibitions
- 2020
Group presentation together with Esiri Erheriene-Essi, Kendell Geers, and Remy Jungerman at The Armory Show 2020, New York, NY, USA - 2019
O Rio dos Navegantes, Museu de Arte do Rio – MAR, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Embodiment (African Art as Philosophy), BOZAR, Brussels, Belgium
Death Worlds, Click Festival, Denmark
What Remains, Apartheid Museum South Africa, South Africa
21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil | Imagined Communities, Sesc 24 de Maio, São Paulo, Brazil
From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), Canada - 2018
Waterworld, curated by Holly + Zachary Cahill, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, USA
In Their Own Form; Contemporary Photography and Afro Futurism, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
In Pursuit of Eden, Ferenczy Museum Center, Hungary
Ex Africa, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil (CCBB), Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
More Aphrike, M Bassy, Hamburg, Germany
Hohenrausch (Thrill of Heights) – The Other Shore, Ok Centre for Contemporary Art, Lintz, Austria
Continental Drift from Blak to Blac, Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland, Australia
- 2017
EX AFRICA, Belo Horizonte, Brasília, São Paulo Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Film Will Always Be You, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Australia
Le jour qui vient, curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi, Galerie des Galeries, Galeries Lafayette, Paris, France - 2016
Lagos Photo Festival, Lagos, Nigeria
Re(as)sisting Narratieves, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
62nd International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany
Prefer Life, Reydan Weiss Collection, The Weserburg, Bremen, Germany
Once in a Lifetime, film program, Oude Kerk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
After The Thrill Is Gone: Fashion, Politics and Culture in Contemporary South-African Art, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigin, USA
When Tomorrow Comes, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg / Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa
- 2015 What remains is tomorrow, the South African Pavilion, the 57th Venice Biennale, Sale d’Armi, Arsenale, Venice, Italy
Joburg Art Fair, Whatiftheworld, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa
NIROX Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dis Place, MoCADA, New York, USA
Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, Londen, UK
Unseen photofair, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
NIROXSCULPTURE: Winter 2015, Nirox foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
AFIRIperFOMA, Lagos, Nigeria
I am not a man and a brother? I am not a woman and a sister, Archer Gallery, Vancouver, Canada - 2014 Anyway the Wind Blows, Brundyn+, Cape Town, South Africa
Here Today, The Old Sorting Office, London, UK
Performing Portraiture, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, USA
Fearless Renewal, MC Theater, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ukukhumula, GIPCA Live Art Festival, City Hall, Cape Town, South Africa
Barongwa: Blindspot, Grahamstown Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
Personal/Political, 21C Museum, Louisville, USA
Art Against the Wall: An Artist Response to Civil Wars, curated by Radcliffe Bailey, Gallery 72, Atlanta, USA
Loop Art Fair, Silencio Club, Paris, France
Brave New World…20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
START Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
!Kauru 2014: Rerouting Dialogue 1994-2014, UNISA Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
VOLTA NY, Brundyn+Gonsalves, New York, USA - 2013 Ceci n’est pas une Summer Show, BRUNDYN+, Cape Town, South Africa
Biennale Internationa d’Art Contemporain (BIAC), Fort de France, Martinique
Am I not a Man and a Brother? Am I not a Woman and a Sister, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, USA
Inzilo, Video Art Powered by Samsung special project, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
FNB Joburg Art Fair, BRUNDYN +, Johannesburg, South Africa
VOLTA NY, BRUNDYN + GONSALVES, New York, USA
Personal and Political, 21c Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA - 2012 Sera, Master of Fine Art exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
NEWSFEED: Anonymity & Social Media in African Revolutions and Beyond, MoCADA, New York, USA
Material Representation, BRUNDYN + GONSALVES, Cape Town, South Africa
FNB Joburg Art Fair, BRUNDYN + GONSALVES, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
Uneveness Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
Out of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK
Exuberance Project Exhibition, Mandela Rhodes Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa - 2011 Implemented Environments, Brundyn + Gonsalves, Cape Town, South Africa
Business Day, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Focus 11, Basel, Switzerland - 2010
A RE FANON, with Lerato Bereng, Blank Projects, Cape Town, South Africa
This is our time, Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
Greatest Hits, AVA, Cape Town, South Africa
MTN New Co3ntemporarie, Durban, South Africa
Spier Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa - 2009 Ugufa Unezindaba, Graduate exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town, South Africa
Selection of Collections
Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town
21C Museum Collection, USA
Mott-Warsh Collection, Michigan
Gene Sherman Collection, Australia
Progressive Art Collection, USA
Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, Oregon
Ekard Collection, The Netherlands
