MAKGABO HELEN SEBIDI
(b. 1943 Marapyane, South Africa)

Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi traverses mental and physical landscapes with an eye trained on the dangerous, the discomfiting and the ecstatic in human experience She is deeply grounded in her rural upbringing and traditions but also finely attuned to the rhythms of the city [Johannesburg] in which she has spent much of her adult life. Sebidi brings together these two worlds in works of great visionary and prophetic power. Her themes are wide-ranging: her cultural roots, the wisdom of the ancestors, the ravages of the modern world on the human psyche, the loss of tradition, the potential of human creativity to build relationships and restore the past.

Sebidi trained at a number of informal art institutions in Johannesburg and for several years exhibited her work – ceramics, landscapes and figurative scenes drawn from her home – at [informal] venues such as Art in the Park in Johannesburg. But while working at the Johannesburg Art Foundation under the tutelage of [South African painters] David Koloane and Bill Ainslie, Sebidi produced her first semi-abstract work, making a dramatic shift away from figurative works and landscapes into a new idiom that is part figuration and part abstraction but that always seeks to escape the boundaries of both. Sebidi’s works are dense and exuberant; they pulsate with energy. Strange figures, some fantastical and mythological, and some drawn from her own richly storied history, jostle for space on the crowded canvases, at times evoking a sense of celebration and, at other times, of terror and loss.

Sebidi won the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award I 1989, the Vita Award in 1990 and the Silver Award of the Order of Ikhamanga in 2004. Her work is in many private and public collections [around the world], including Iziko South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and the Smithsonian Institution. *

* Biography reproduced from: Mmakgabo Mmapula Mmankgato Helen Sebidi, TAXI Art Books, 2009, David Krut Publishing

SELECTED RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018
Batlhaping Ba Re, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
Tears of Africa, Everard Read | CIRCA Cape Town, South Africa
Crossing Night, part of the Hacer Noche Festival, Santo Domingo due Guzman, Oaxaca City Mexico

2017
They Are Greeting, Albany Museum, Grahamstown Festival, South Africa

2016
They Are Greeting, Everard Read Gallery Johannesburg, South Africa
32nd Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil
Mmakgabo Sebidi: An Exhibition of paintings and prints, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, South Africa

FURTHER SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2013 
Centennary Exhibition, Everard Read (Group Show)

2009 
Great South African Nude Exhibition at Everard Read (Group Show)

2008 
Joburg Art Fair 2008 with Everard Read

2006 
Oman, Group Show

2005 
Telkom exhibition
Oman, Solo Show

2004 
Visible Visions travelling exhibition: Germany: Hagen, Essen, Berlin and Osnabrueck; Holland: Tilburg

2003 
Solo: The artificial shelter foundation: Tilburg

2002
Art in the context of the World Earth Summit on sustainable development
International travelling exhibition, World Women, Visible Visions from ‘International Women, opened in Johannesburg
International world summit exhibition: Tilburg

2001 
The Markers exhibition, Venice Biennale, Italy
Association with Freedom Park begins

2000 
Axis Gallery, New York, USA
University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion

1999 
Human Rights Institute Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Durban
Changing Screens Exhibition, The Firs, Rosebank
Standard Bank National Drawing Competition, toured SA

1994 
Six Women from Southern Africa, Exhibition in Lisbon, 1994 Civic Gallery, Johannesburg

1993 
Women from Africa Exhibition, Savannah Gallery of Modern Art, Bethnal Green, London, representing eight woman artists from Africa
Group Exhibition – African Hei-iti-@e – Uranienborgreien, Norway
Graphics Exhibition, Jyraskyla, Finland
Group Show – Biennale Italy
Three-person show at the Everard Read Gallery with Lucky Sibiya and Noria Mabasa
Group show at Stedelike Museum, Amsterdam
Il Croce Del Sud, Rome, Italy

1992 
Future Realms, two person exhibition, The Afrika Futuristic Gallery, Johannesburg
Art from South Africa, SA National Gallery, Cape Town
Standard Bank Young Artists Award Winners Exhibition, Zimbabwe National Gallery

1991 
A Grain of Wheat Group Exhibition at the Art Gallery of the Common Institute, London
Standard Bank Young Artists Award Winners Exhibition, Namibia
The Challenge to Colonization, Group Exhibition, 4th Havana Biennial, Cuba

1990 
Art from South Africa Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
Mozambiquan National Gallery
Zabalaza Festival, group show as part of South African Festival, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

1989 
Ten Years of Collecting, University of the Witwatersrand. Standard Bank National Festival of the Arts, Grahamstown
Biennale in Museum Africa, Johannesburg
Sunday Times Finders Keepers, Cape Town National Gallery
Included in a group exhibition, The Laager, Museo de Arte, Pretoria
Contemprario Santiago, Chile
Centre of the Arts Yerba Buenga Gardens, San Francisco
The Everard Read Gallery – South Africa’s Finest Painters
Common and Uncommon Ground, South African Art to Atlanta, City Gallery East, Atlanta, Georgia
Solo Exhibition, London
Solo Exhibition, Hamburg, Germany

1988–9 
Cape Town Triennial, toured SA

1988 
Detainees’ Parents Support Committee – 100 artists protested against detention without trial, The Neglected Tradition, Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Art Images in Southern Africa, Group Show, in Stockholm, Sweden exhibition
SA Potters Association
Thopelo Art Workshop and Exhibition, Cape Town, South Africa

1987 
Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Delfiri/FUBA Creative Quest Exhibition, FUBA
FUBA (Seven Woman Artists)
Thupelo Workshop Exhibition, toured to Johannesburg Art Foundation and NSA Gallery, Durban

1986 
FUBA, Johannesburg (Solo Show)
Art for Alexandra, Sotheby’s, Johannesburg
Johannesburg Art Foundation Thupelo Workshop Exhibition, University of the Witwatersrand

1980–81 
Washington, USA (organised by a private collector)

1980–88 
Brush and Chisel Club, Johannesburg

1977–88 
Artists under the Sun, Johannesburg

COLLECTIONS

Africana Museum, Johannesburg
Art Workshop, London
Sasol Collection
Unisa, Pretoria
University of Bophuthatswana, Mafikeng
Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town
South African National Gallery
1820 Settlers Foundation
Standard Bank Collection
Pretoria Art Museum
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington and New York
University of the Witwatersrand
Price Forbes
Federated Insurance Co
Department of Education and Training
Galerie Adriana Schmidt
University of Wolverhampton
H Roque Investments
ABSA Bank
World Bank
South African Broadcasting Corporation
Gencor
First National Bank
SA Permanent Bank
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, New York, USA
Aboriginal Art Museum, Australia

AWARDS

2015 
Mbokoto Women’s Award

2011 
Lifetime Achievement Award for Visual Art

2005 
Nomination for ILKSSA: National Heritage Council, National Living Treasure Award
Oman Association of the Arts Award
Award of the order of Ikhamanga silver award given by the Presidency, the Republic of South Africa, Chancery

2002 
Nomination for the 1st nominee in the Human Sciences Research Council Living Treasure Award

1990 
Vita Fine Art Award

1989 
Fulbright Scholarship – World Exhibition, New York
Standard Bank Young Artist Award

1988 
Star Woman of the Year finalist