Zwelethu Mthethwa

Zwelethu Mthethwa
Born	1960 Durban, South Africa
Nationality	South African
Field	Painter and Photographer
Training	Michaelis School of Fine Art

Zwelethu Mthethwa (born 1960) is a South African painter and photographer. Mthethwa is represented in Cape Town by BRUNDYN + GONSALVES,^[1] Johannesburg by Everard Read^[2] and in New York by the Jack Shainman Gallery.^[3]

Biography

Mthethwa, a native of Durban, received his diplomas at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. He received a Fulbright Scholarship that allowed him to study at the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he received his master's degree in imaging arts in 1989. Upon returning home, he worked for some years in business before becoming a lecturer on photography and drawing at the Michaelis School in 1994. He left the post in 1999 to devote himself full time to his art. Mthethwa is best known for his large-format color photographs, but also works in paint and pastel; he has had over 50 solo exhibitions in galleries around the world. Currently he lives and works in Cape Town. In 2013, Mthethwa was arrested for murder on May 5 after being captured on closed circuit camera hitting and kicking a woman to death on the street in Woodstock, Cape Town earlier in that year.^[4]

Recent Developments

His work was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale^[5] and the 2004 Gwangju Biennale.

Mthethwa's collaboration video work The Dying Minutes with Matthew Hindley has been selected for FIVAC, Festival Internacional de videoarte deCamaguey, Cuba 2011, and will be exhibited on the group show Global Groove at the new Eli and Eydthe Broad Museum, opening Fall 2012.^[6]

Allegations of Murder

On May the 5th 2013 Mthethwa was arrested after being filmed on closed circuit camera hitting and kicking an unnamed woman to death on the street in Woodstock on April 13. He was also identified by an eyewitness. Mthethwa reportedly appeared the next day in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court, where he was granted bail of R100,000.^[7]

Selected Recent Solo Exhibitions

2013

• Zwelethu Mthethwa: New Works, Jack Shainman Gallery,^[8]

2012

• Zwelethu Mthethwa, curated by Kirsten Hileman, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland^[9]
• Zwelethu Mthethwa: Sugar Cane (2003–2007), curated by Diego Cortez. John Hope Franklin Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.^[10]

2011

• New Works, iArt Gallery (now BRUNDYN + GONSALVES), Cape Town^[11]

2010

• Zwelethu Mthethwa: Inner Views, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York^[12]

• Zwelethu Mthethwa: Brick workers & Contemporary Gladiators, Galeria Oliva Arauna, Madrid, Spain^[13]

• Zwelethu Mthethwa: Is it our goal…? And Other Related Issues, Circa on Jellicoe, Johannesburg, South Africa^[14]

• Zwelethu Mthethwa, iArt Gallery, Cape Town^[15]

2009

• Zwelethu Mthethwa: New Works, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York^[16]

Further reading

• Michael Godby, Zwelethu Mthethwa, Octavio Zaya. Zwelethu Mthethwa, Torino, Marco Noire Editore, 1999. ISBN 88-900202-2-9
• Njami Simon, Lucy Durán. Africa Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent, Johannesburg, Jacana Media, 2007. ISBN 978-1-77009-363-8
• Zwelethu Mthethwa, Isolde Brielmaier, Okwui Enwezor. Zwelethu Mthethwa, New York, Aperture, 2010. ISBN 978-1-59711-113-3

External links

• Artist page at BRUNDYN + GONSALVES
• Artist page at Everard Read
• Artist page at Jack Shainman
• Bio from the National Museum of African Art
• Full Artist CV

References