VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // MOTHER // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // MOTHER // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // MOTHER // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // MOTHER // VISUAL ARTIST // SCULPTOR // MOTHER //

CREATING FROM A POLITCIALLY CHARGED SPACE // CREATING FROM A POLITCIALLY CHARGED SPACE // CREATING FROM A POLITCIALLY CHARGED SPACE // CREATING FROM A POLITCIALLY CHARGED SPACE // CREATING FROM A POLITICALLY // CREATING FROM A POLITICALLY // CREATING FROM A POLITICALLY // CREATING FROM A POLITICALLY

NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE // CELEBRATING RESILIENCE // NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE // NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE // CELEBRATING RESILIENCE // NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE // NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE // CELEBRATING RESILIENCE // NEGOTIATING EXISTENCE //

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ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY //
ISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY // ARTIST HISTORY //
Mary Sibande received a degree in Fine Arts at The University of Johannesburg in 2007. Since 2006, she has participated in multiple artist residencies across Europe and the U.S.A, and has travelled extensively —delivering presentations and exhibiting in solo and group shows in major galleries, museums, and universities around the world.
In 2010, Sibande’s exhibition Long Live the Dead Queen was displayed publicly —installed over 19 billboards across the Inner City of Johannesburg, in collaboration with The Albany History Museum, Grahamstown. Sibande represented South Africa at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011, exhibited at macLYON for the 12th Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2013, and won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award that same year.
She was chosen for the Smithsonian African Artist Award in 2017, and accepted the Virginia C. Gildersleeve Professorship at Barnard College at Columbia University in New York in 2018/2019.
In 2021, Unhand Me, Demon! was exhibited at Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago —a retrospective survey charting the evolution of thirteen years of sculpture and photography practice.
Her most recent solo show, The Red Ventriloquist, exhibited at Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon in France in early 2022. Upcoming solo shows include an Exhibition at Kunst Palais in Germany, as well as at Durban Art Gallery, South Africa —both in 2022.
Sibande is currently based in Johannesburg where she maintains immersion in the society and culture that motivate her work, feeling that this direct connection facilitates nuanced observation and understanding.
PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY //
ONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY // PERSONAL HISTORY //
Born in South Africa in 1982, Mary Sibande lived her formative years in the volatile decade-end of Apartheid. An environment that emphasised the connection between the personal and political, and cultivated an interest in the subject of collective history.
Sibande was raised by her grandmother, whose ‘western name’, Sophie, the artist chose for her alter-ego: a reminder of the barriers of inequality that beset her ancestors —an inheritance she contemplates consistently throughout her work.
The women in Sibande’s family worked as ‘maids’ during Apartheid. Sibande’s mother broke this cycle when she started her own business, affording her daughter previously inaccessible opportunities.
Initially interested in pursuing a career in fashion design, Sibande found her way into a practice of combining mediums —working in a combination of sculpture, photography, and installation. She has applied her understanding of fabric and cloth with deft articulation to her sculptures, demonstrating the capacity for expansive exploration of identity through dress —a dovetailing of fashion and fine art.
Sibande binds elements of the pedestrian uniforms typically worn by domestic workers, with extravagant Victorian dress —subverting prevailing power structures and occupying their narratives —a political and personal act of defiance and transformation.
ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY //
E BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY // ON THE BODY //
Sibande’s work often addresses gender-based violence —specifically the violence inflicted upon black female bodies. Recognising the potential for over sexualisation of a body represented in art, Sibande works to explore these topics with a sensitivity that preserves the dignity of the women she embodies, avoiding gratuitous self-inflicted abuse.
She applies the human form as a focused critique, often distilling complex and dynamic movement with a simple gesture —a moment under a microscope.
As her work shifts through phases, each distinguished by a colour: Blue, Purple, and currently Red —Sibande adjusts the focus of her lens from the macro to the micro, and back again, constructing cinematic scenes engaged in compelling dialogue.
Though Sibande’s focus has been concerned primarily with making history visible —her current body of work is future-oriented, seeking transformation and radical change, underscored by a belief in the role of imagination and the art of story creation as a catalyst for dialogue and transformation.
CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE //
M VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE // CURRICULUM VITAE //

EDUCATION

2007
B-Tech Degree in Fine Arts, University of Johannesburg (UJ), Johannesburg, South Africa.
2004
Diploma in Fine Arts, Witwatersrand Technical College, Johannesburg, South Africa.

AWARDS & RESIDENCIES

2022
Helgaard Steyn Award For Sculpture, Cape Town, South Africa.
2018-19
Virginia C. Gildersleeve Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City, USA.
2017
Smithsonian African Artist Award, National Mall, Washington, D.C, USA.
GLAMOUR Woman of the Year - Winner for Art Category, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2014
Artist in residence, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri Centre, Umbertide, Italy.
Artist in residence, Musée Léon Dierx, Saint-Denis, Reunion Island, France.
2013
Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Artist in residence, MAC/VAL Museum of Modern Art, France.
Artist in residence, Ann Arbor Fellowship, STAMPS School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
2011
Artist in residence, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship Program (SARF), Washington, D.C, USA.
2010
Artist in residence, Kunstraum Sylt Quelle, Sylt,Germany.
2009
Artist in residence, Ampersand Foundation Fellowship, New York City, USA.
2008
Artist in residence, Prohelvitia-IAAB, Basel, Switzerland.
2006
Artist in residence, Cite des Arts International, Paris, France.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS & PRESENTATIONS

2022
Let me tell you about Red..., Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
The Red Ventriloquist, MAC Lyon – Musée d’art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France.
A Red Flight of Fancy, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2021
Blue, Purple, Red, Frist Art Museum, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Unhand Me, Demon!, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, USA.
2019
I Came Apart at the Seams, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Somerset House, London, UK.
Leroy Neiman Gallery, New York City, USA.
2018
The Armory Show (Gallery MOMO), Piers 92 & 94, New York City, USA.
A Crescendo of Ecstasy, presented by The Mixed Reality Workshop (TMRW) in collaboration with Eden Labs, Keyes Art Mile; FNB Joburg Art Fair (TMRW), Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2016
Right Now!, as part of Stellenbosch University’s Woordfees Festival, Stellenbosch University’s Art Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
The Armory Show (Gallery MOMO), 92 & 94 Piers, New York City, USA.
2014
The Purple Shall Govern, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2013
Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyon, France.
The Purple Shall Govern, Grahamstown National Arts Festival Grahamstown;
Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
The Purple Shall Govern, MAC/VAL Musée d’Art Contemporain di Val-de-Marne, Paris, France.
Mary Sibande and Sophie Ntombikayise Take Central Court, Central Court, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
The Purple Shall Govern, MAC/VAL The Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Vitry-sur-Seine, France; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town ; North-West University Gallery, North-West University, Potchefstroom; Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg; Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, The National Arts Festival, Grahamstown; Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
2012
Mary Sibande and Sophie Ntombikayise Take Central Court, Central Court, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
2010
Long Live the Dead Queen, Inner City Johannesburg, Exhibition of billboards on
19 buildings, Johannesburg, The Albany History Museum; Grahamstown, South Africa.
2009
Long live the Dead Queen, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2006
My Madam’s Things, Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS & PRESENTATIONS

2021
Art Basel Miami Beach (Kavi Gupta), Miami Beach, USA.
West Bund Art & Design Fair (Bloom Galerie), West Bund Dome, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China.
Paris Photo Fair (Braverman Gallery), Braverman Gallery, Paris, France.
Weekend Special, Cape Town Art Weekend, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Weekend Special, Cape Town Art Weekend, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Opening Exhibition, FNB Art Joburg, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
TEXTURES: The History and Art of Black Hair, Kent State University, Ohio, USA.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair (SMAC Gallery), Digital Event.
Black Luminosity, curated by Gcotyelwa Mashiqa, SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Margins of Error, NIROX Foundation Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, South Africa.
2020
BredaPhoto, Breda, Netherlands.
Investec Cape Town Art Fair (SMAC Gallery), Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town, South Africa.
Reclaiming Power: Womxn and Intersecting Inequalities, Oxfam South Africa, The Worker’s Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa.
NOW LOOK HERE. The African Art of Appearance, Asterweg 17, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Making of Ourselves, BKHZ, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present, Moody Centre for the Arts – Rice University, Houston, USA.
Soos Familie / Like Family, Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2019
Ngoma: Art and Cosmology, curated by Musha Neluheni, Philippa van Straaten & Khwezi Gule, Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, South Africa.
Felix Fair (Kavi Gupta), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Los Angeles, USA.
Art Basel Miami (Kavi Gupta), Miami Beach, Miami, USA.
arteBOTANICA, Nirox Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, South Africa.
Frieze London (Kavi Gupta), Regents Park, London, UK.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (SMAC Gallery), Somerset House, London, UK.
To Reclaim, Kavi Gupta, Chicago, USA.
That Was Then, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
My Africa. Our Art, Javett Art Centre, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Open Borders, 14a Curitiba International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Curitiba, Brazil.
N’GOLÁ Festival of Arts, Creation, Environment and Utopias, São Tomé e Príncipe.
Ampersand Foundation Award 21 years celebration exhibition,
University of Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), South Africa.
FNB Art Joburg (SMAC Gallery), Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Construction of the Possible, Havana Biennale, Havana, Cuba.
Made Visible, Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity, Boston Museum of
Fine Art, Boston, USA.
2018
The Red Hour, curated by Simon Njami, Dak’Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale, Dakar, Senegal.
In Their Own Form, Museum of Contemporary Photography(MoCP), Chicago, USA.
Shifting Boundaries: A Selection of Works showcasing South African Women Artists
of the Past 100 Years, Welgemeend, Cape Town, South Africa.
Not a Single Story, a collaboration between NIROX Foundation & The Wanås
Foundation, Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park, Cradle of Human Kind, South Africa.
Continental Drift: Black / blak Art from South Africa and North Australia, Cairns ArtGallery, Cairns, Australia.
Like Life: Sculpture, Color, and the Body (1300–Now), The Met Breuer, New York City, USA.
Cultural Threads, TextielMuseum, Tilburg, Netherlands.
Friends50, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Extra/Ordinary, curated by Ceren & Irkman Arkman, Plugin New Media Section, Contemporary Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey.
2017
South Africa: The Art of a Nation, The British Museum, London, UK.
All things being equal, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa.
African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, USA.
Dress Code, Gallery MOMO, Cape Town, South Africa.
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (Gallery Momo), Somerset House, London, UK.
Art on Paper, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), Cape Town, South Africa.
The Evidence of Things Not Seen, Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, South Africa.
Another Antipodes/Urban Axis, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia.
Beauty and Its Beasts, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa.
Identitet/Identity Avesta Kommun, Verket/Avesta Art, Sweden.
Deep Memory, Kalmar konstmuseum, Kalmar, Sweden.
2016
Different Angels, Höhenrausch Linz, Austria.
Desire, Association of Arts Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Re[as]sisting Narratives [Travelling Exhibition], Framer Framded, Amsterdam, Netherlands; District Six Museum Homecoming Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.
A Place in Time, Nirox Foundation Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, South Africa.
Selling the Shadow, curated by Ayana V Jackson, Gallery MOMO, Cape Town,
South Africa.
Chicago Expo (Gallery MOMO) Chicago, USA.
After the Thrill is Gone, Fashion Politics and Culture South Africa, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, USA.
South Africa the Art of a Nation, British Museum, London ,UK.
2015
Barriers – Contemporary South Africa, Wanås Konst Sculpture Park, Knislinge, Sweden.
Art_textile, The Whitworth, Manchester, UK.
Between the Art and the Experience, Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba.
Twenty: Art in the Time of Democracy, UJ Arts Centre, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
ReSignifications: Imagining the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories, Museo Bardini, Florence, Italy.
South African Art in a Time of Democracy, 6th Beijing International Art Biennale, Beijing, China.
2014
Where do I end and you begin?, Edinburgh Festival of Arts, Scotland.
Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Material Self: Performing the Other Within, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Toronto, Canada.
2013
Say it Loud!: Art by African and African-American Artists in the Collection, Norton Museum of Art, Florida, USA.
My Joburg, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Germany; La Maison Rouge, Paris, France.
Family Histories, Dishman Art Museum, Lamar University, Beaumont, USA.
Sibande on Campus: Mary Sibande Installation/New Work, Institute for the Humanities Gallery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Meanwhile.... Suddenly and Then, 12th Lyon Biennale, Lyon, France.
2012
Recent Additions: 2009-2012, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
The Rainbow Nation: Contemporary Sculpture from South Africa, Museum Beelden aan Zee, Hague, Netherlands.
Somehow, Somewhat in the middle of things, Liefhertje en De Grote Witte Reus Gallery, Hague, Netherlands.
Say it loud, Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
2011
(Re)constructions, Contemporary Art from South Africa, Museu de Arte
Contemporânea de Niterói (MAC), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
ARS 11, Kiasma Museum for Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland.
Desire, Narratives in Contemporary South African Art, 54th Venice Biennale (South African Pavilion), Venice, Italy.
Paris Photo, Grand Palais, Paris, France.
BEYOND Re/PRODUCTION. MOTHERING, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin, Germany.
2010
From Pierneef to Gugulective: 1910-2010, Iziko South African National Gallery,
Cape Town, South Africa.
l’Exposition du Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres, Dakar, Senegal.
Space: Currencies in Contemporary African Art, curated by Thembinkosi Goniwe & Melissa Mboweni, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2008
Four Tales, Gallery MOMO, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2007
Dark and lovely (5 Women), Gordart Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
I Love you Positive or Negative, Espace Simon Michel, Paris, France.
2006
Sasol Miniatures Exhibition Sasol, Johannesburg, South Africa.
ABSA L’ATELIER Awards Top 50 exhibition, ABSA Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
I Love You Positive or Negative, Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, South Africa.

COLLECTIONS


Iziko South Africa National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Pérez Art Museum, Miami, USA.
Fonds Régionaux d’art Contemporain (FRAC), France.
Bowman Gilfillan, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Standard Bank , Johannesburg, South Africa.
SASOL South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa.
TELKOM, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Iziko South Africa National Gallery (SANG), Cape Town, South Africa.
Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG), Johannesburg, South Africa.
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Kansas USA.
Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
UNISA Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa.
Norton Museum of Art, Florida, USA.
National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C, USA.
Frank and Lizelle Kilbourn Collection, Cape Town, Soth Africa.
Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH, USA.
Scheryn Art Collection, Cape Town, South Africa.
University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
Fonds Régional d’art Contemporain (FRAC), Réunion.
MAC VAL, Paris, France.
Collection Leridon, France.
Theo Danjuma Collection, England.
Barlow World, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, USA.
Chicago Museum of Photography, Chicago, USA.
Jorge Pérez Art Collection, Miami, USA.
© 2022 Mary Sibande
by eleven11.