Mohau Modisakeng uses his body to explore the influence of South Africa’s violent history on how we understand our cultural, political and social roles as human beings. Represented through film, large-scale photographic prints, installations and performance, Modisakeng’s work responds to the history of the black body within the (South) African context, which is inseparably intertwined with the violence of the Apartheid era and the early 1990s. His images are not direct representations of violence, but powerful yet poetic invocations where the body is transformed into a poignant marker of collective memory.
Mohau Modisakeng was born in Soweto in 1986 and lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town in 2009 and worked towards his Masters degree at the same institution. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Fine Art, Boston (2014); 21C Museum, Kentucky, Massachusetts (2014); IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2014); Saatchi Gallery, London (2012); and the Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar (2012). Public Collections include the Johannesburg Art Gallery, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, the From Cobra to Contemporary Collection, EKARD Collection, Dommering collection, and Zeitz MOCAA.
Modisakeng has been awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art in 2016.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2016
ENDABENI, Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam
2015
Mohau Modisakeng, Kunstrum, Innsbruck
Mohau Modisakeng, Big Pond Artworks, Munich, Germany
2014
Loop Barcelona, Hotel Catalonia Ramblas, Barcelona
VOLTA NY, BRUNDYN+, New York
Ditaola, BRUNDYN+, Cape Town
Mohau Modisakeng, Chavonnes Battery Museum, Cape Town (in partnership with Zeitz MOCAA)
2013
Inzilo, Video Art Powered by Samsung Special Project, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2012
Sera, Master of Fine Art Exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
VOLTA NY, BRUNDYN +, New York
Untitled, A solo exhibition in recognition of his Sasol New Signatures Award for 2011, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria
2010
Ibutho, Side Gallery, Stevenson, Gallery, Cape Town
2009
Ugufa Unezindaba’, Graduate Exhibition, Michaelis School of Fine Art, Cape Town
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2016
When Tomorrow Comes, Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg / Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town
2015
2015 Joburg Art Fair – WHATIFTHEWORLD, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
NIROX Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation, Johannesburg
DIS/PLACE, MoCADA, Brooklyn, New York
AFIRIperFOMA, Lagos, Nigeria.
What Remains is Tomorrow, South African Pavilion, Venice Bienniale
La Fabrique De L’Homme Moderne, in resonance with Lyon Biennale, La Fabric, Solomon Foundation for Contemporary Art, Annecy
Foreign Bodies – WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London
2014
Brave New World…20 Years of Democracy, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Loop Art Fair, Silencio Club, Paris
!Kauru 2014: Rerouting Dialogue 1994- 2014, UNISA Gallery, Pretoria
FNB Joburg Art Fair, BRUNDYN +, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
START Art Fair, BRUNDYN+, Saatchi Gallery, London
Art Against the Wall: An Artist Response to Civil Wars, Gallery 72, Atlanta, Georgia
GIPCA Live Art Festival, City Hall, Cape Town
Anyway, the Wind Blows, BRUNDYN +, Cape Town
Here Today, The Old Sorting Office, London
Fearless Renewal, MC Theatre, Amsterdam
Performing Portraiture, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2013
FNB Joburg Art Fair, BRUNDYN +, Johannesburg
Am I not a Man and a Brother? Am I not a Woman and a Sister, James Harris Gallery, Seattle
Personal and Political, 21c Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Biennale Internationa d’Art Contemporain (BIAC), Fort de France, Martinique
Ceci n’est pas une Summer Show, BRUNDYN+, Cape Town
2012
Out of Focus: Photography, Saatchi Gallery, London
Exuberance Project Exhibition, Mandela Rhodes Gallery, Cape Town
Uneveness Exhibition, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
NEWSFEED: Anonymity & Social Media in African Revolutions and Beyond, MoCADA, New York
Dak’Art Biennale, Dakar
Material Representation, BRUNDYN +, Cape Town
FNB Joburg Art Fair, BRUNDYN +, Johannesburg
2011
Focus 11, Basel
Implemented Environments, BRUNDYN+, Cape Town
Business Day, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg
2010
A RE FANON, with Lerato Bereng, Blank Projects, Cape Town
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) Johannesburg Art Gallery
IZIKO South African National Gallery
Saatchi Gallery
21C Museum Hotel University of South Africa (UNISA)
New Church Museum
Piet Viljoen Collection
Wendy Fisher Emile Stipp Collection
Manuel de Santaren Salsali Private Museum
The Ekard Collection
