OWEN NDOU (b. 1964)
Buffalo
year unknown
wood carving
size variable
BIOGRAPHY
Owen Ndou is a sculptor and master wood carver based in the Limpopo Province.
Images of snakes are a recurrent theme in Ndou’s sculptures. Snakes, some benevolent, others dangerous, also feature in Venda cosmology. (Great healers and diviners, for example, were associated with pythons.)
Alongside the work of artists Noria Mabasa, Paul Thavana, Thomas Kubayi and David Murathi, Ndou’s artworks can be found woven into the architecture of the Venda Art Lodge at Leshiba Wilderness, a wildlife and ecotourism destination located on top of the Soutpansberg Mountains, 36km west of Louis Trichardt in Limpopo. The lodge offers art walkabouts where participants can learn more about Venda, Tsonga and Sotho people’s culture and how it has shaped the Northern frontier of Limpopo into what it is today.
In addition to being represented in the SABC Art Collection, Ndou’s sculptures are held in several prestigious collections including the Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg Art Gallery and Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg.