BONGI BENGU (b. 1970)
Untitled
2000
mixed media on paper
49 x 69 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Bongi Bengu was born in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, grew up in exile in Geneva and attended high school in Switzerland – and, later, at Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland. Bengu graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree at Mount Vernon College in Washington DC, and a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cape Town.
Bengu’s work has been described as ‘social commentary about her life’. In her early works, she worked mainly in collage, drawing upon images from popular media. She has worked with soil, collage, painting and printmaking, layering different realities, histories, memories and emotions. Most of her work looks at the world from the point of view of women in Africa. It is often about the roles of grandmothers, mothers and daughters – and life’s burdens, which they are compelled to pass on to each other. She works with metaphor and with layers of meaning, often depicting ordinary, domestic objects.
She has exhibited widely in South Africa and internationally. She has also participated in numerous international residencies in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom. Her work is included in numerous collections including: MacDonalds, Chicago, US; De Beers, Johannesburg; Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, US; Musée De la Civilisation, Québec, Canada; Department of Arts & Culture, Pretoria; Spier, Stellenbosch; and Rand Merchant Bank, Johannesburg.