Nandipha Mntambo

Nandipha Mntambo (born 1982) is a South African artist who has become famous for her sculptures, videos and photographs that focus on human female body and identity by using natural, organic materials. Her art style has been self described as eclectic and androgynous. She is best known for her cowhide sculptures that connects the human form to nature.

Life and education

Nandipha Mntambo was born in Swaziland, Southern Africa, in 1982. Growing up, her father was a Methodist pastor and later became a bishop. His occupation allowed her family to live in white neighbourhoods during apartheid, an aspect of her life that serves as an influence for her art and identity as an artist. Prior to her career in art, her first choice was to study medicine. She graduated with a master's degree in Fine Art (with distinction) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, in June 2007. She currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa, with her daughter. Because of that, she worked with a taxidermist to better understand how to tan hides.

While she uses her own body as the mould for these sculptures, she does not intend to make an explicit statement regarding femininity. Rather, Mntambo uses these hides to explore the division between animals and humans, as well as the divide between attraction and repulsion. This aspect of her work has influenced her perception of contemporary South African women by allowing her to think differently about body hair on women and became curious as to how viewers would interpret a completely hairy female form. She has stated:"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."

Photography and film In the context of her photography, Mntambo is heavily inspired by mythology and the idea of an animal-human species. She often places herself as the subject of her photos along with others and has stated that she finds it difficult to accurately represent her photographed subjects as real. It sometimes made her uncomfortable to face what she likes and does not like about herself in her digitally altered photographs.

Mntambo's film and performance piece Ukungenisa (2008) is a nine minute video portraying the artist as a bullfighter in an abandoned bullfighting arena in Mozambique; this is one of the few performances she has produced in her career. The primary theme of this self-dedicated production was for her to figure out how to become the fighter, animal, and audience all at once. The research she conducted ahead of this display consisted of trips to Spain and Portugal in the hopes of shadowing bullfighters; however, her experience did not go as planned and she hired a choreographer to guide her performance.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions 2023 | Chimera, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 2022 | Agoodjie, Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa 2022 | Transcending Instinct, Southern Guild, Cape Town, South Africa 2021 | Agoodjie, Everard Read, Johannesburg, South Africa 2019 | Isikhala, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Paris 2017 | The snake you left inside me, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa 2017 | Material Value, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa 2015 | Love and its companions, Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, Sweden 2015 | 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 2009 | The Encounter, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa 2007 | Ingabisa, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa

Group exhibitions 2022 | Ozange, Contemporary Photography Bienalle, Malaga, Spain 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. 2018 | City Deep, The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Johannesburg South Africa 2017 | Nandipha Mntambo and Per B Sundberg, Galerie Hervé van der Straeten, Paris, France 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 2010 | PEEKABOO: Current South Africa, Tennis Palace Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland Ampersand, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany. 2010 | The Beauty of Distance: Song of survival in a precarious age, 17th Biennale of Sydney, Australia. 2010 | Space: Currencies in contemporary African art, Museum Africa, Newtown, Johannesburg, South Africa 2010 | Dak’Art, 9th Dakar Biennale, Senegal - Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Fotogallery, Cardiff, Wales The Good Old Days, Aarhus Art Building, Denmark 2010 | 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 2009 | Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography, Bamako, Mali 2009 | Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK 2008 | Dak'art biennale, ifa Gallery, Berlin; Stuttgart, Germany 2008 | Number Two: Fragile, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany Kuckei + Kuckei, Berlin, Germany. Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway

Awards 2016: Creator Award | Glamour South Africa Women of the Year 2014: Shortlisted for the AIMIA | AGO Photography Prize (Canada) 2011: Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2010; Wits/BHP Billiton Fellowship 2005: Curatorial Fellowship, Brett Kebble Art Awards 2004: Mellon Meyers Fellowship, Michaelis School of Fine Art 2003: Mellon Meyers Fellowship, Michaelis School of Fine Art

Literature Hansi Momodu-Gordon 9 Weeks Stevenson, 2016 Nandipha Mntambo Standard Bank Young Artist 2011 special edition Stevenson, 2011 Nandipha Mntambo Standard Bank Young Artist 2011 Stevenson, 2011 Mntambo, Nandipha, Sophie Perryer, and Michael Stevenson Gallery. The Encounter. Michael Stevenson, 2009. Mntambo, Nandipha. Nandipha Mntambo – Locating me in order to see you. University of Cape Town, 2007. Mntambo, Nandipha, und Sophie Perryer. Nandipha Mntambo: Ingabisa, 16 August–15 September 2007. Michael Stevenson, 2007.