Sthenjwa Luthuli

"I'm using my work as a visual language, questioning my existence and the space around me"

Sthenjwa Luthuli

B.1991

Based in Durban, South Africa

Introduction

The intricate and complex nature of Sthenjwa Luthuli’s artistic process ensures that each work he produces is a remarkable and singular result of a formidable artistic effort. Each work is meticulously hand carved and then painted; his pieces can take months to create. Luthuli has remarked on the importance of the circular shape in his works. For Luthuli, the circle opposes the starkness of the square, which is frequently used in modern architecture. Luthuli’s use of the circle opposes any severity of form as his works undulate before the viewer in boundless and gentle movement. Luthuli’s works frequently involve the notion of ancestral identity; his headless forms are tied to his Zulu culture and rituals.

Education

2012 Themba Shibase’s Mentorship Programme, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa

2011 Velobala Art School, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa

2010 Artists In-Action Residency, Visual Arts Course, BAT Centre, Durban, South Africa

Solo Exhibitions

2023
Inzalo Yelanga (Birthplace Of The Sun), Unit, London, UK

2022
Imbewu Yokhokho (The Seed of Our Ancestors), Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana

2021
Imfumbatho, Unit, London, UK
Umthente Uhlaba Usamila, BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020
Inkaba Yami, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, South Africa

Group Exhibitions

2023
Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands
Africa Inspires, Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands

2022
1-54 Art Fair, Unit, London, UK

2021
Untitled Art Fair, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Miami, Florida, USA

2020
Liminality In Infinite Space, Mike Adenuga Centre, Ikoyi, Nigeria
African Artists Foundation, Victoria Island, Nigeria
BLACK VOICES: Friend of My Mind, Ross-Sutton Gallery, New York, USA
The Medium Is The Message, Unit London, UK

2017
Sasol New Signatures, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
Ukushintsha Isigcawu, Woordfees Festival, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Members Exhibition, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2016
Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa

2015
New Printmakers, SA Print Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Emerging, Design Indaba Simulcast, Cape Town, South Africa
Izimpande, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Expo Durban, Durban, South Africa
Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
Hilton Group Exhibition, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Johannesburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
Turbine Art Fair, Sandton, South Africa

2014
National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa

2013
Business of Art, Beautiful Things Gallery, Eshowe, South Africa
African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa

2012
Velobala Mentorship Exhibition, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa

2011
Who am I, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
Velobala Class, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa
Don’t Panic, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

2010
Izikhwephe zethu, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

Selected Press

2022
October ‘The Best Booths at 1-54, From an Indigo Bed to a Wall of Crosses’, ARTnews

2020
December ‘Artists We Love: Sthenjwa Luthuli’, Visi
‘Finding Home in an ‘Unknown Place’, Maverick Life
November ‘Sthenjwa Luthuli: Inkaba Yami’, Contemporary And
‘Sthenjwa Luthuli: Inkaba Yami’, Mail & Guardian
‘We Have Lost a Limb’: Azu Nwagbogu, the Visionary Curator Bringing African Art Home’, The Guardian
October ‘Sthenjwa Luthuli’, Elephant
September ‘Emerging Artists Explore Blackness at Unit London’, Widewalls

2019
November ‘Sthenjwa Luthuli – Tackling Tradition with a Carving Knife’, Tame Until
September ‘Latitudes Art Fair’, House & Garden

2017
April ‘Centre Kick Starts Artist’s Career’, news24
‘Telling stories with silhouettes’, The North Coast Courier

2015
August ‘Edition 4’, Ja. Magazine

Selected Collections

Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Kunsthal KAdE Museum, Amersfoort, Netherlands
Schulting Art Collection, Wassenaar, Netherlands
Fubon Art Foundation, Taiwan
Robyns Collection, London, UK
Gatreaux Collection, Kansas City, USA
Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
Leiterin der Städtischen Galerie, Bremen, Germany
Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Phansi Museum, Durban, South Africa

“The absence of faces is a deliberate effort to avoid the anachronism in translating oral histories of ancestors through the pollution of the superfluity of contemporary images we consume today.”

– Azu Nwagbogu, Director, African Artists’ Foundation (AAF)

Luthuli’s capacity to critically analyse the ever-shifting social landscape he grew up in has made him one of South Africa’s most sought after young artists. His creative voice draws attention to the restrictions that are still placed on the lives of ethnic minorities in South Africa. Sthenjwa elucidates the reality that, for many, life is about restrictions, about control, about being told what to do and how to do it.

Pattern, texture, and design are very important to his practice, both aesthetically and metaphorically: the surface of the works seem to shimmer and shift under the eye. The figures are headless: a symbolic gesture to the important connection between education and liberation. They are shackled by circumstance, their free will eroded by the abused powers of state and a lacking social infrastructure.

Installation View: Imfumbatho, Unit London, 2021. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Imfumbatho, Unit London, 2021. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Inzalo Ye Langa: Birthplace of the Sun, Unit London, 2023. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Inzalo Ye Langa: Birthplace of the Sun, Unit London, 2023. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Inzalo Ye Langa: Birthplace of the Sun, Unit London, 2023. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Imfumbatho, Unit London, 2021. Image courtesy of Unit London.
Installation View: Imfumbatho, Unit London, 2021. Image courtesy of Unit London.

Works

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Inzalo Yelanga

2023

Hand carved super wood block mix
184 x 136 x 4 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Spirit Identity

2023

Hand-carved super wood block mix media and paint with a 3D sculpture from sawdust and beads.
153 x 101 x 20 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Saved Soul

2020

Hand carved wood & paint

198 x 149 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

“Izizwe” The Nations

2022

Super wood hand carved block & paint
184 x 138 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Reclaiming The Soul

2022

Super wood hand carved block & paint
138 x 184 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Indawo Yami

2021

Super wood hand curved block and paint

191 cm x 136 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Higher Is Waiting

2022

Super wood hand carved block & paint
184 x 138 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Two in One

2020

Super wood hand carved block and paint

184 cm x 138 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

A Reflection Of Self

2022

Super wood hand carved block & paint
184 x 138 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Holding Future

2021

Super wood hand carved block and paint

138 cm x 184 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Izandla Ziyagezana

2018

Super wood hand carved block and paint

184 cm x 138 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Untold Stories

2020

Hand carved wood & paint

149 x 198 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

The Unknown Space

2020

Hand carved wood and paint

184 x 274 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Positive Fear

2020

Hand carved wood and paint

198 x 149 cm

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Solidarity – Ubumbano

2020

Hand carved wood & paint

198 x 149 cm

Exhibitions

Sthenjwa’s preferred medium is a 12mm MDF Super wood block that can be cut to different dimensions.

He then carves into this piece of wood using a chisel and mallet. The result is a hybrid art-object, a bare, wooden, sculptural canvas. Sthenjwa then paints this object, introducing his figures, each one deterministically shackled to a life with little opportunity. This process is deeply rooted in tradition: African sculpture has historically used wood, as well as other organic indigenous materials. This connection to the past is so crucial, as it is through education and learning from history, that societies and collective thought can progress. However, Sthenjwa takes this tradition and adapts it with a decidedly contemporary visual language, hoping to use his art to engage and offer hope to younger generations.

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Studio

Biography

Sthenjwa Luthuli, born in 1991 in Bothas Hill, KwaZulu-Natal, is a South African artist working primarily in carved wooden reliefs and woodcut prints. In 2011 he enrolled for the Velobala Saturday art classes hosted by the African art Centre at the Durban University of Technology. As a result of his dedication and commitment and overt talent he was selected to further take part in the Velobala mentorship program in 2012.

Recent solo exhibitions include:Inzalo Yelanga (BirthPlace Of The Sun), Unit, London, UK, Imbewu Yokhokho (The Seed of Our Ancestors), Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana (2022); Imfumbatho, Unit, London, UK (2021) and Umthente Uhlaba Usamila, BKhz Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2021). Selected group exhibitions include Metamorphosis: Reshaping Contemporary Art, Harn Museum of Art, Florida, USA; Africa Inspires, Afrika Museum, Berg en Dal, Netherlands (2023); Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden, Netherlands (2023); 1-54 Art Fair, Unit, London, UK (2022); Liminality In Infinite Space, Mike Adenuga Centre, Ikoyi, Nigeria (2021).

Luthuli’s works are included in the permanent collections of the The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Kunsthal KAdE Museum, Amersfoort, Netherlands; Schulting Art Collection, Wassenaar, Netherlands; Fubon Art Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan; Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa; Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, South Africa; Phansi Museum, Durban, South Africa and University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.

Press

Artnet

We Asked 10 Art-World Insiders Which Artists They’re Most Excited to Watch Over the Next Decade. Here’s What They Said

Artnet News, October 21, 2021 – Click to Read More

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Sthenjwa Luthuli

Sthenjwa Luthuli

Introduction

Introduction

Education

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions

Selected Press

Selected Collections

“The absence of faces is a deliberate effort to avoid the anachronism in translating oral histories of ancestors through the pollution of the superfluity of contemporary images we consume today.” – Azu Nwagbogu, Director, African Artists’ Foundation (AAF)

Works

Exhibitions

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