Current Artists

• Nadine Hutton
• Thenjiwe Nkosi
• David Koloane
• Diana Hyslop
• Sam Nhlengethwa
• Kagiso Pat Mautloa
• Tracy Rose
• Myer Taub
• Lerato Shadi
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Thenjiwe Nkosi

Thenjiwe Nkosi was born in New York. She grew up there, as well as in Harare and Johannesburg.

Nkosi’s work, in various forms and modes of portraiture, ponders Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s conception of the world and pictures.  “We picture facts to ourselves, “ Wittgenstein wrote in Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). And: “The world is the totality of facts, not of things.”

Education

School of Visual Arts (New York, NY). MFA, Photo, Video and Related Media. May 2008

Harvard University (Cambridge, MA). BA in Visual and Environmental Studies and Certificate in African Studies. June 2004

Selected Video

• Border Farm. In post-production. A docu-drama made in collaboration with a group of migrant farm workers living in Musina, Limpopo Province. 2010
• Darfurian Voices. A collaboration with 24 Hours for Darfur Video Advocacy Campaign. Production in Darfurian refugee camps, Chad. 2008
• Elephant King. Documentary MFA Thesis Film. 2008
• Amplifying Youth Voices: Global Rights Conference. 2005
• Crossing Night. Documentary about Artist Proof Studio. Johannesburg. 2004

Group Exhibitions

• Border Farm, (curator and participant) Bag Factory, Johannesburg, 2010
• Time’s Arrow, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg. 2010
• Adding Subtractions, Bag Factory. Johannesburg. 2009
• San Diego Black Film Festival. California
• Africa World Documentary Film Festival. St Louis, Missouri and University of the West Indies, Barbados. 2009
• Art with a Purpose. Casa Frela Gallery. Harlem, NY. 2008
• Here is Not Now. Soho, NY. 2006
• Structure II: Drawings and Paintings. Gallery Katz. Boston. 2005
• Assemblies: Excavation and Reconstruction in African Contemporary Art. Brandeis University. Waltham. 2004
• Uneasy. Carpenter Center, Harvard University. Cambridge. 2004

Community

Co-Founder, One Voice Mobilisation. A networking and advocacy organisation devoted to understanding and minimising the impact of violence on the lives of young people. For us, the arts offer a platform from which to unite youth initiatives  concerned with the impact of violence on the lives of young people. We aim to draw attention and seek alternatives in one unified voice to the challenges that face our youth.

Co-Founder, CURIOUS. Curious is a loose band of artists, scientists, tinkerers and thinkers who collectively facilitate the production of each other’s curiosities- which have so far taken the form of films, photographs, writing, music, electronics, interviews, and activism. (We like our media mixed and our play deep.)

Selected Grants

• National Arts Council Grant. 2009
• Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation Grant for Filmmaking. 2008
• School of Visual Arts Alumni Award Fellowship. 2006
• Aaron Siskind Fellowship. 2005
• Pforzheimer Foundation Public Service Fellowship. 2004
• Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship 2002

Selected Awards

• The Accolade Award: Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking 2008
• Albert Alcalay Prize for Studio Work. 2004
• David McCord Arts Prize. 2004
• Philippe Wamba Prize in African Studies 2004

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