Notes

Unathi Mkonto is a Cape Town-based artist working with drawing, sculpture and installation. Mkonto is a self-taught artist and pursued a Bachelor in Architecture at Nelson Mandela University. He was also a design fellow at Architecture for Humanity in Johannesburg. Residencies that he has participated in include AVOID at the A4 Arts Foundation and Alma Martha, both in Cape Town, South Africa. Mkonto has experimented with performance art, most notably in the 7th season of mentorships at the Center For The Less Good Idea founded by William Kentridge. With a practice that sits at the juncture between art, design and architecture, Mkonto says, “I am always studying and looking at processes to humanize this historically apartheid inspired built environment.”

The drawings featured in this auction are part of a series Mkonto began in 2023 when he moved into the Atelier at Zeitz MOCAA. The drawings are observations and abstractions of still life, portraiture and landscape. As the title suggests, Still Life as Space is a meditation on the idea that objects do not only occupy space but they are space themselves. As an artist with a background in architecture, Mkonto is interested in reimagining landscapes and cityscapes and how we inhabit those spaces.

Field Lines was inspired by Exhibition Match, a biannual soccer tournament and exhibition that brings together players from across the arts ecology in South Africa. The white lines on green paper are reminiscent of a soccer pitch and the movement is akin to a coaches gameplan.