Lwando Dlamini was born in the Eastern Cape, South Africa in 1992 and raised in the Western Cape. Painting with oil and also working with mixed media, he brings attention to the injustice of police brutality in townships throughout South Africa; especially highlighting the violent bodily harm he has personally faced through illness, and near-death experience. Stitching together these subject matters, he stirs a conversation around awareness of the "broken" body, and around his particular focus on memory loss.
At the age of ten, Dlamini was paralyzed and survived a prolonged coma. Ten years later, he was brutally attacked by corrupt police; his cornea thereafter being severely damaged. Physically fragile before unmerciful tragedy, he was reminded of undetermined mortality; the meaning, the unpredictability, of our own existence. His work has a clarity and a precision that invoke compassion or empathy, as well as well as questions about what, in fact and facture, lies beyond.
In 2017, Dlamini graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art from the Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town, where he is currently based. His most recent group exhibit, entitled tete-a-tete, took place at Absa Gallery in Johannesburg in 2019. Dlamini was among young, emerging visual artists selected for the RMB Talent Unlocked Programme, in association with both the Visual Arts Network of South Africa and the Assemblage, during the 2019 Turbine Art Fair in Sandton. He participated in group shows at the FNB Joburg Art Fair in Johannesburg in 2018, and was awarded the 2018 David Koloane award from the iBag Factory Artist Studios. Additionally, he attended the Artist Career Boot-Camp in Johannesburg held in association with the National Arts Council. In 2018, he was a semifinalist in the prestigious Absa L’atelier Art competition. In 2017, he was the photographer and chaperone for Italian artist in residence Valentina Colella at the Ruth Prowse School of Art, in association with Everard Read and the Centro di Luigi Sarro. He participated in the group exhibition Thuphelo at the University of Stellenbosch Gallery, Western Cape, and in the drawing workshop at the Greatmore Artist Studio in Woodstock, Cape Town both in 2018
Africa Present Auction
Latitudes will be co-curating Artnet Auctions’ second Africa Present sale, an auction designed to highlight the work of up-and-coming as well as established artists from the African continent.
Artnet is a leading resource for buying, selling, and researching art online. Founded in 1989, the online platform has revolutionised the way people discover and collect art today. “Latitudes is thrilled to be able to partner with a giant of the industry, in order to both broaden the collector base for art from Africa and set values for contemporary, living artists on the auction market,” says Lucy MacGarry, co-founder of Latitudes Online.
The Africa Present auction, a partnership between Artnet and Africa First by Serge Tiroche, is a dynamic initiative that uses the reach, contacts, and capabilities of Artnet’s global art marketplace to raise awareness about contemporary artists from Africa. In a forward-thinking bid to feature artists across all career stages, the auction lots are categorised into three sections: Meet, Support and Invest.
Participating artists for the Meet selection include, among others: Cinthia Sifa Mulanga, Lwando Dlamini, Kimathi Mafafo, Manyaku Mashilo, Sthenjwa Luthuli and Shakil Solanki.
Bidders can also expect to find notable works by artists such as Bouvy Enkobo, Dennis Muraguri, Ablade Glover, and Joseph Ntensibe in the Support and Invest sections of the sale.
Auction Details:
August 31 - September 14, 2021
To enquire about any of the artworks in this exhibition
Further Reading In Articles
African Artist Directory