Bongi DHLOMO (b. 1956)
Woman / Man (diptych)
1995
oil on canvas
145 x 54 cm
BIOGRAPHY
Born in 1956 in Vryheid, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), Bongiwe (Bongi) Dhlomo is a creative director, independent arts consultant, curator, cultural activist and artist who grounds her art in the socialist-realist and the political.
She holds a Fine Arts diploma in printmaking from the ELC Art and Craft Centre Rorke’s Drift, South Africa (1979).
Her linocuts and woodcuts explore a wide range of issues, ranging from political events such as the 1976 Soweto uprising to portrayals of the daily life of working South African women.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the artist was pivotal in the development of several visual arts projects, including the Thupelo Art Workshops, Alexandra Arts Centre, FUBA (the Federation Union of Black Artists) and, later, Thupelo Art Gallery.
She was appointed project coordinator of Metro Mall, Johannesburg (2000), and worked on the construction of the new Constitutional Court as part of the Integrated Architectural Artworks Program, Johannesburg (2001 – 2004).
She was a member of the Johannesburg City Council (1993 – 1998) and founded Zakhe Arts in Alexandra, Johannesburg (1998).
She served as the Outreach and Development Programme Coordinator for the 1995 Africus, Johannesburg Biennale.
She was the Director for the newly established Africus Institute for Contemporary Art (AICA) (1996–1998), a Johannesburg project tasked with the staging of arts and culture projects, including the 2nd Johannesburg Biennale (1997). She serves as a board member on several arts committees and visual art selection panels, including the South African National Art Gallery and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
Dhlomo-Mautloa co-authored Soweto: A South African Legend with Annette Braun (Arnoldsche, 2001). She also contributed to the Second Johannesburg Biennale catalogue titled Trade Routes: History and Geography (Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council and Prince Claus Fund, 1997) and Africus: Johannesburg Biennale (Greater Johannesburg Transitional Metropolitan Council, 1995).
In 2022, New York-based curator Tumelo Mosaka (with curatorial assistance from Sipho Mdanda and Phumzile Twala) installed an exhibition of artworks from the Bongi Dhlomo Collection, at the Javett Art Centre at University of Pretoria, titled Yakhal’ Inkomo – a phrase first popularised by the musician Winston Mankunku Ngozi and his Mankunku Quartet in 1968. Yakhal’ Inkomo roughly translates to ‘ululating cow’ in Xhosa and Zulu and the interdisciplinary exhibition explored how visual artists, musicians, poets and writers forged acts of creative defiance under the oppressive apartheid system, during the tumultuous late 20th century period. From 2017 – 2019, Dhlomo assembled the Collection of 138 artworks on behalf of the Javett Foundation.
Dhlomo currently lives and works in Johannesburg.