Notes

"The people you love become ghosts inside of you and like this you keep them alive." —Robert Montgomery.

'Makhulu' in Zulu means grandmother. Lwando Dlamini had a very special connection with his grandmother when she was still alive.

Since graduating in 2017 with a Diploma in Fine Art from the Ruth Prowse School, Lwando Dlamini has been active in the emerging art community in South Africa. He was among the young emerging visual artists who were selected to be part of the RMB talent unlocked programme in association with both the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA) and the Assemblage at the 2019 Turbine Art Fair. Dlamini has participated in group shows at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in 2018, was awarded the 2018 David Koloane award from the Bag Factory Artist Studios, and attended the Artist Career Boot Camp in association with the National Arts Council. Also in 2018, Dlamini made it through to the semi-finals of the prestigious Absa L’atelier Art competition.

In his practice, Dlamini uses his fascination with pigments of oil paints and mixed media as an opportunity to explore the sensibility and vulnerability of the human body, the crippled township living, the injustice of police brutality, and society as a whole. He stitches together these subject matters, in essence, to bring awareness about the broken body, with a particular focus on memory loss. These topics stem from his own personal experiences of illness, violent bodily harm, and near-death experiences.

Biography courtesy of Africa First.

Provenance

Ebony Curated, Cape Town, 2021.

Africa First, 2023.

Exhibited

Intersect Chicago, online exclusive, Intersect Chicago 2020, 6 November to 5 December 2020.