Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi
Born 1980, New York
2006 BA Harvard University
2008 MFA School of Visual Arts, New York
Selected museum exhibitions: Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2018); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2017); Seed Space, Nashville (2017); National Gallery of Zimbabwe (2016); Somerset House, London (2015); Joberg Pavilion, Venice (2015); Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2013); Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2011)
Selected honors: Pro-Helvetia Grant (2015); Residency, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, France (2013); Ithuba Art Fund Grant (2011); National Arts Council of South Africa Grant (2009, 2015)
Selected public collections: The Dean Collection, New York; Nando Collection, Cape Town
Born in New York, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi lives and works in Johannesburg. Her paintings, films, and videos investigate power and its structures – political, social, and architectural. Her painting Emergent Phenomena II, from 2017, is a prime example of her Architectures series. In its background is the massive headquarters of Johannesburg’s Standard Bank, Africa’s biggest lender by assets. Nkosi interrupts the building’s massive rectilinear shapes with brightly hued tropical flowers in the foreground, their organic forms implicitly suggesting an alternative to the bank’s institutional power.