Artist Database

Nicholas Hlobo, born in 1975, received his fine arts degree from the Technikon Witwatersrand in 2002 in Johannesburg, the city in which he currently lives and works. The artist uses a diverse store of materials, including ribbon, leather, wood, rubber and copper, which he variously melds and weaves together to create two- and three-dimensional hybrid objects. Each material holds a particular association for the artist and is linked to his exploration of gender, race, ethnicity, and language in relation to the artist’s Xhosa heritage and gay identity. Although prone to working in an allusive manner, Hlobo’s works often have a figural reference or invoke idiomatic phrases linked to cultural practices from his youth. The role of the stitch is integral to the meaning of works in this style and operates in conjunction with any particular reference or context specific to an individual work. Best known for his free-form sculptures, Hlobo has also produced a large number of canvas- and paper-based works.

Hlobo has won multiple awards, including the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art (2009) and the Rolex Visual Arts Protégé (2010-11). Solo exhibitions have taken place at institutions such as the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, USA (2019), the Uppsala Konstmuseum in Sweden (2017), and Tate Modern in London, UK (2008). In 2011, Hlobo showed newly commissioned work at the 54th Venice Biennale (Italy), amongst others. His work is included in many public and private collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan, USA; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York, USA; Tate Modern, London, UK; and in Cape Town at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art and South African National Art Gallery.