The San Francisco Art Institute invites the public to engage with global leaders of contemporary art and culture through lecture series and multidisciplinary events throughout November.

A nexus of creativity and cultural innovation since 1871, SFAI brings renowned artists and thinkers from the international art community together with the public and SFAI’s student body for activated dialogue and imaginative exchange.

Wednesday, November 6,  7:30pm
Lecture by Mohau Modisakeng + Nandipha Mntambo

Mohau Modisakeng and Nandipha Mntambo will offer insight into their practices in separate presentations and dialogue on November 6, 7:30pm

In each of their interdisciplinary practices, South African artists Nandipha Mntambo and Mohau Modisakeng engage questions raised in postcolonial Africa. Both work in a variety of media, including drawing, sculpture, performance, video, and photography, frequently using natural elements such as animal skins for their symbolic qualities. Mntambo explores the female body, challenging and subverting preconceptions of its representation. Modisakeng questions the complex, violent histories of ritual and spirituality in South Africa. He utilizes culturally symbolic materials, such as leopard prints, animal skins, and weapons to tap into cultural and economic conditions.

MOHAU MODISAKENG was born in Soweto, an area of Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1986, and lives and works between Johannesburg and Cape Town. He completed his undergraduate degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2009, and his MFA at the same institution in 2012. In 2011, he was awarded the SASOL New Signatures Award. Modisakeng’s work has been exhibited widely, including at VOLTA NY; Saatchi Gallery, London; Dak’Art, the 2012 Dakar Biennial; Focus 11, Basel; and Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town. He has recently produced an ambitious new video work in association with Samsung as a special project for the 2013 FNB Joburg Art Fair. His work is included in prominent public collections, including the Johannesburg Art Gallery; IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town; and Saatchi Gallery, London.

Born in Swaziland, Africa, in 1982, NANDIPHA MNTAMBO received an MFA with distinction from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town, in 2007. She is the recipient of the 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Art, and a Wits/BHP Billiton Fellowship. In 2006, she was one of five young artists selected for the MTN New Contemporaries exhibition at Johannesburg Art Gallery. Exhibition venues include the ARS 11 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; the 17th Biennial of Sydney; and Dak’Art, the 2012 Dakar Biennial. Mntambo’s work has also been included in the major exhibitions A Life Less Ordinary: Performance and Display in South African Art, Djanogly Art Gallery, University of Nottingham, England; Undercover: Performing and Transforming Black Female Identities, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta; Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art, Stenersen Museum, Oslo; .ZA: Young Art from South Africa, Palazzo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy; and Apartheid: The South African Mirror, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona.

All lectures are free and open to the public.
See the whole lecture programme here .

www.sfai.edu