Sethembile Msezane was born in 1991 in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. She was awarded a Masters in Fine Arts in 2017 from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, where she also completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2012.

Using interdisciplinary practice encompassing photography, painting, live works/embodiments, film, sculpture and installation. Msezane creates commanding works heavy with spiritual and political symbolism. The artist explores issues around spirituality, commemoration and African knowledge systems. She processes her dreams as a medium through a lens of the plurality of existence across space and time, asking questions about the remembrance of ancestry.

​

Part of her work has examined the processes of mythmaking which are used to construct history, calling attention to the absence of the black female body in both the narratives and physical spaces of historical commemoration.

Msezane participated in the Acts of Empathy- Deep Blue exhibition in the 3rd Bienal Fotografia do Porto, Porto, Portugal, she also participated in the 13th Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography (2022), she completed a residency at Central Saint Martins, London (2022), she participated in the 14th Dak’art Biennale (2022), she was a UEA Global Talent Fellow hosted by the Sainsbury Research Unit and Sainsbury Centre (2021). She was Mellon Artist Residency Fellow in partnership with Gallery of the University of Stellenbosch and the English Department (2020), she is a National Institute for Human Social Sciences Award nominee (2020), OkayAfrica 100 women 2018 Honoree. Msezane was a TEDGlobal Speaker in Arusha, Tanzania (2017). She was a TAF & Sylt Emerging Artist Residency Award winner (TASA) (2016). Msezane is the first recipient of the Rising Light award at the Mbokodo Awards (2016). She is a Barclays L’Atelier Top 10 Finalist (2016). She is a Sasol New Signatures Merit Award winner (2015).

 

Msezane’s work has been widely exhibited across South Africa and internationally and was included in various exhibitions and museums that include the 14th Dak’art Biennale, Zeitz MOCAA (Cape Town), as well as that of the Iziko South African National Gallery (Cape Town), The Royal Ontario Museum (Canada), Oscar Niemeyer Museum (Brazil) and more.

In 2019 she performed Signal Her Return III at the New Art Exchange in Nottingham. 2018, she staged a performance for the ICA Arts Live Festival in Cape Town, as well as performing at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen, as part of the conference Changing Global Hierarchies of Value? Museums, artifacts, frames, and flows, organized in association with the University of Copenhagen. She also performed at dOCUMENTA 14 in 2017 in both Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany, as part of iQhiya Collective. She has participated in residencies including the Sylt Foundation, Emerging Artist Residency, Sylt and Künstlerhuser Worpswede, Germany (2017), and the Situate Arts Lab Residency, Hobart, Australia (2016).

​

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

​

2023
Liguqubele iZulu, BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Speaking Through Walls, Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, 13th Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
UkuKhanya,, Ĩ Ndaffa#, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
2021
Nibizwa Ngabangcwele, Sainsbury Centre, Norwich, UK
Isimo, Online Exhibition, Gus Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2019
Speaking Through Walls, Tyburn Gallery, London
2018 Unframed, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
All Things Being Equal, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, South Africa
Umoya: A Quiet Revolution, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Kwasuka Sukela, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa

​

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

​

2024

Where Thou Art - That - is Home, Osart Gallery, Milan, Italy

The Norval Sovereign African Art Prize 2024 Exhibition, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa

2023
Unruly Kinship, Temporary Gallery, Cologne, Germany Abadali, Rosebank Keyes Art Mile, Johannesburg, South Africa
2022
Speaking Through Walls, Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, 13th Bamako Encounters African Biennale of Photography, Bamako, Mali
UkuKhanya,, Ĩ Ndaffa#, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal
And She Was Wearing Trousers: A Call to Out Heroines, Arts House, Melbourne, Australia
2021
The Commons and Commoning- Video Art and Experimental Film Event (VAEFE), SEA Foundation, Netherlands
Africa Writes, Royal African Society, British Library, London, UK Creative Climate Awards, The Human Impacts Institute, US Dwala Lam’, Center for Human Rights and the Arts online, US
2020
Propositions for Alternative Narratives, Photoworks Festival, Brighton, UK ARCOLisboa online edition, Movart, Lisbon, Portugal
Now Look Here, The African Art of Appearance, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Ĩ’NDAFFA, Forger/Out of the fire’, 14th Dak’art Biennale, Dakar, SenegaL
African Cosmologies, Fotofest Biennial, Houston, USA
Tomorrow there Will be More of Us, Stellenbosch Triennale. Cape Town, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Smith Gallery. Cape Town. South Africa
2019
14th Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Brazil
Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
N’Golà, VIII Biennia of Arts and Culture, São Tomé e Príncipe
Investec Cape Town Art Fair. Tyburn Gallery. Cape Town. South Africa
Lagos Photo, Lagos, Nigeria

2018
Cape to Tehran, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa
Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
1:54 Contemporary Art Fair, London, United Kingdom
2017
1:54 Contemporary Art Fair, London, United Kingdom
Falling, De Gameente, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Dress Code, Gallery MoMo, Cape Town, South Africa
What Do They Call Me, Gallery MoMo, Johannesburg, South Africa
The Winter Sculpture Fair, Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
iQhiya, KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
2016
Re[as]sisting Narratives, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Women’s Work, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
The Art of Disruptions, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa #TheOpening, Greatmore Studios, Cape Town, South Africa
Dance, if you want to enter my country! / Global Citizen, GoetheOnMain, Johannesburg, South Africa
Nothing Personal, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
iQhiya, The AVA Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2015
Translations, Emergent Art Space, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, USA
2014
Anywhere the Wind Blows, Brundyn + exhibition, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013
Camouflage, Circa Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012
MOP5 festival, Lovell Gallery, CT Mistakes exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa
CMYK, Circa Gallery, JHB Manifestations of Self, YoungBlood, Cape Town, South Africa
Michaelis School of Fine Art Graduate’s exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa

​

SELECTED LIVE WORKS

​

2022
Let the Emerald Village Carry Me, Lethaby Gallery, England
2019
Signal Her Return III, New Art Exchange, Nottingham (UK)
2018 Signal Her Return III, ICA Live Art Festival, Cape Town (CT)
Excerpts from the Past, National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen
2017
Excerpts from the Past, ICA Live Art Festival, Cape Town, South Africa; National Arts Festival, South Africa; Arts House, Melbourne, Australia; and Spiel Art Festival Munich, Germany
The Portrait, dOCUMENTA 14, Athens, Greece (as part of iQhiya collective)
Monday, dOCUMENTA 14, Kassel, Germany (as part of iQhiya collective)
2016
Azania - What will be Remembered What will be Forgotten? Gipca, Cape Town, South Africa Excerpts from the Past, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2015
Chapungu - The Day Rhodes Fell, Cape Town, South Africa. Chapungu - The Return to Great Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
Love in the Time of Afrophobia at VryfeesKunstefees and AVA Open Stoep Residency, Cape Town, South Africa
Ellipsis at Infecting the City, Cape Town, South Africa
Krotoa at Grid Biennial Cape Town, Art Meets Camera, Cape Town, South Africa

​

RESIDENCIES

 

2022
Central Saint Martins, University of Arts London, London, United Kingdom
2021
UEA Global Talent Fellow hosted by the Sainsbury Research Unit and Sainsbury Centre, United Kingdom
2020
Mellon Artist Residency Fellow, Gallery University Stellenbosch and the Department of English Studies, South Africa
2017
Nirox Foundation, Krugersdorp, South Africa
Sylt Foundation, Sylt Island, Germany
Künstlerhäuser Worpswede, Germany
2016
Situate Arts Lab, Hobart, Australia. 2014 OPENLab, Bloemfontein, South Africa

​

AWARDS AND LEADERSHIP POSITIONS

 

2023

Shortlisted for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize

2021 

UEA Global Talent Fellow hosted by the Sainsbury Research Unit and Sainsbury Centre, United Kingdom

Creative Climate Award Winner, New York, America

Visionary Award Finalist, Javett,-UP, Pretoria, South Africa

2020

Mellon Artist Residency Fellow, Gallery University Stellenbosch and the Department of English Studies, South Africa

The National Institute for Human Social Sciences Award nominee

2018 

OkayAfrica 100 Women honoree

2017

Nominee: ANTI Festival International Prize for Live Art, Kuopio, Finland 

2016

Rising Light Award, Mbokodo Awards

TAF & Sylt Emerging Artist Residency Award, South Africa, Germany

Top 10 finalist: Barclays L’Atelier Competition

2015

Sasol New Signatures Merit Award

Finalist: Barclays L’Atelier

2013

Project Assistant for the Cape Town Art Fair (2013- 2014)

2014

Open Lab candidate, a residency program investigating performance and space 

2012

First year mentor for Fine Art students, advised and assisted on projects as well as provided moral support

Travel Scholarship to dOCUMENTA 13, Kassel Germany 

SA Centre for Photography representative

 

​