Biography
Born in Springs, South Africa in 1955. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.Nhlengethwa was born into a family of jazz lovers; his two brothers both collected jazz music and his deceased eldest brother was a jazz musician. “Painting jazz pieces is an avenue or outlet for expressing my love for the music,” he once said in an interview. “As I paint, I listen to jazz and visualize the performance. Jazz performers improvise within the conventions of their chosen styles. In an ensemble, for example, there are vocal styles that include freedom of vocal colour, call-and-response patterns and rhythmic complexities played by different members. Painting jazz allows me to literally put colour onto these vocal colours.
“Jazz is rhythmic and it emphasizes interpretation rather than composition. There are deliberate tonal distortions that contribute to its uniqueness. My jazz collages, with their distorted patterns, attempt to communicate all of this. As a collagist and painter, fortunately, the technique allows me this freedom of expression… What I am doing is not new though, as there are other artists before me who painted jazz pieces. For example, Gerard Sekoto, Romare Bearden and Henri Matisse.”
http://www.artthrob.co.za/03oct/artbio.html
Solo Exhibitions
2016
The Past and The Present … Now is The Time, Goodman Gallery, Johannebsurg, South Africa
2014
Life, Jazz and Lots of Other Things, Gallery 1600, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Life, Jazz and Lots of Other Things, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Life, Jazz and Lots of Other Things, Trois Gallery, Atlanta, USA
2012
Conversations , Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010
Kind of Blue, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008
Tributes, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Townships Re-visited, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2005
Sam Nhlengethwa, Axis Gallery, New York, USA
2004
Glimpses of the fifties and sixties, Florence Lynch Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
Sam Nhlengethwa Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sam Nhlengethwa, Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2002
All that Jazz , Kubatana Moderne Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2001
Jozi People, Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
1998
Interiors, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1996
Mine Trip, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1995
Senegalese Images, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1994-1995
Homage to Jazz, Standard Bank Young Artist Award travelling show, South Africa
1993
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, Market Gallery, Johannesburg,South Africa
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
1990
Cassirer Fine Art (with guest Daniel Phaladi), Johannesburg, South Africa
Group Exhibitions
2016
New Revolutions: Goodman Gallery at 50 , Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2014
Contemporary Art / South Africa at Yale University Art Gallery, Standard Bank Gallery, South Africa
2013
My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
Imaginary Fact: Contemporary South African Art and the Archive, South African Pavilion, 55th la
Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
2011
constructions Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói, Brazil
2010
12th International Cairo Biennale, Cairo, Egypt
2009
Strengths and Convictions: The lives and times of South Africa’s Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Albert
Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk, Nelson Mandela, Iziko SA National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006
Faces to Names, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sam Nhlengethwa: Black Goats: Art on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
From Apartheid to Democracy: The Freedom Struggle in South Africa and the American South, Jimmy
Carter Presidential Museum, Atlanta, USA
2005
Unity Series, The World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland
2004
New Identities – Contemporary South African Art, Museum Bochum, Germany
POST – Contemporary South African photography, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
In a City, collaboration with Andrew Tshabangu, Bag Factory Artists Studios, Fordsburg, South Africa
2003
Southern African Stories: A Print Collection, Centre for Contemporary Art in the Fernandes Industrial
Centre, Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago
2003
Florence Lynch Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA
2003
8th Havana Bienale, Cuba
2002
Towards new Cultures, Trevi Exhibition Area, Bolzano, Italy.
South African Art from 1850 to 2002, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg South Africa
African & African American Shared Understanding Project’ , Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Ubuntu, Malaysia
2001
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
Sam meets Zwelethu, collaboration with Zwelethu Mthethwa, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South
Africa
2000
Artlook South Africa, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Chicago, USA
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
Project Conflux, touring exhibition started in Cape Town, South Africa
Two-man show with Zwelethu Mthethwa, Seippel Art Gallery, Cologne, Germany
South African Trade Exhibition, Mauritius
Artery, Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town, South Africa
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
1999
Fast Forward za, Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
1998
Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa
1997
Cross Over, Johannesburg to Nantes, Nantes, France
1995
Africa 95, Whitechapel, London, UK
1990
Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
1989
Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Two-man show with Gerard Sekoto, Cassirer Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
1988
Cassirer Fine Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
1987
Thupelo Show, The Art Foundation, South Africa
1987
Two-man show with Madi Phala, Fuba Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1986
Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1985
Tributaries, Africana Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
1984
FUBA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1983
Shell Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1981
Civic Centre, Kwa Thema, Springs, South Africa
Haenggi Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Teaching, Lectureships and Workshop
2001
Lines of Connection, an MTN Art Institute project – exhibiting and facilitating education workshops for students, Douala, Cameroon
2000
College of DuPage, lecturer and conducted workshops, Glen Ellyn, Chicago, USA
MTN Art Institute Community project, Conducted art workshops, South Africa
1992
FUBA, part time teacher, Johannesburg, South Africa
Professional Appointments and Consultation
2004
Triangle Workshop with Sir Robert Loder, London, England
2003
Matric Art Seminar project, illustrated lectures to Art & Design students, PE
Technikon and Rhodes University, Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown, South Africa
2002
Johannesburg Art City exhibition, Wall Project (part of the WSSD), Johannesburg, South Africa
MTN Art Institute art competition judging in schools, South Africa
2001
Gerard Sekoto Foundation project in partnership with Mamelodi Heritage Foundation, De Beers and
Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
2000
Participant in filming of Afro-Cuban Connection documentary, Havana, Cuba
Secure the Future, a Bristol Myers Squibb art project to promote HIV/AIDS research, Johannesburg,
South Africa
Conference and Workshop Participation
Gerard Sekoto Foundation Community project, Mural workshops, Northern
Province and Sophiatown, South Africa
1994
TENQ African Workshop – Senegal, West Africa
Awards and Merits
1996
First National Bank Vita Awards Nominee, First National Bank, Johannesburg,
South Africa
1994
First National Bank Vita Awards nominee, Johannesburg, South Africa
1993
Bertrams VO Art for Africa Finalist, Johannesburg, South Africa
Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for 1994, Standard Bank, Johannesburg, South Africa
1992
Delfina Studio Trust Summer Award, London, UK
AA Vita Awards Nominee, Johannesburg, South Africa
1991
AA Vita Awards Nominee, Johannesburg, South Africa
1988
AA Vita Awards Nominee, Johannesburg, South Africa
Academic Record and Residencies
Residencies
1976-1977 Johannesburg Art Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
Postgraduate
1977-1978 Diploma, Rorkes Drift Art Centre, Natal, South Africa
Collections
World Bank, USA
Botswana Art Museum, Botswana
Mobil Court, Cape Town, South Africa
Anglo American, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sasol, Johannesburg, South Africa
GENCOR, Johannesburg, South Africa
Standard Bank Head Office, Johannesburg, South Africa
BMW, Pretoria, South Africa
Mercedes-Benz, Johannesburg, South Africa
TELKOM, South Africa
ABSA, Johannesburg, South Africa
Nedcor, Johannesburg, South Africa
Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg, South Africa
Johannesburg Stock Exchange , Johannesburg, South Africa
SA Broadcasting Corporation, Auckland Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
DaimlerChrysler Headquarters, Pretoria, South Africa
Millennium Consolidated Investment, Sandton
Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Private collections in South Africa and abroad
Selected Articles and Reviews
2013
Brent Meersman, An Imperfect Past and Its Impact on the Present, Mail & Guardian, Johannesburg,
South Africa
1999
The Money Standard, Vol 1, Issue 4, 1999, p26.
1997
Vuka SA, Volume 2, Issue 3
1996
Williams, M. Jazz Heritage. Vol 4. Oxford University Press. p16-17
1988
Younge, G, Leadership, ‘The Next Million Years’, Vol 7, Issue 5, 1988, NAIL, Johannesburg, p 58-65
Courtesy of Goodman Gallery Printed: 30 May 2017, Last updated: 23 November 2016