Exhibitions
Mautse Cave, Free State/ 1996
Current and Upcoming Exhibitions:
14 June 2024 - 30 May 2025
We, the Purple, Javett-UP, The Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, South Africa
Solo Exhibitions:
2023
SANTU MOFOKENG | Billboards, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany
2022
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kunsthaus Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
2019
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. foam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2018
Santu Mofokeng: Stories. Kliptown Community Centre, Soweto, South Africa
2016
Santu Mofokeng. A Silent Solitude. Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena Foro Boario, Italy
2012
Chasing Shadows/Santu Mofokeng, thirty years of photographic essays, Bergen Kunsthall, the Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011
Chasing Shadows/Santu Mofokeng, thirty years of photographic essays, Jeu de Paume, Kunsthalle Bern.
2010
Let’s Talk, Arts on Main, Johannesburg, South Africa
Remaining Past, Minshar Art Institute, Tel Aviv, Israel
Chasing Shadows, Anne Arbor Institute of Humanities, Michigan, USA
2009
Mofokeng survey exhibition, Autograph ABP, London, UK
2008
Santu Mofokeng’s Landscapes, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Homeland Security, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
2007
Invoice Standard Bank Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2006
Invoice Iziko, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
Rethinking Landscape, Centre of Photography D'Ille-De-France, Pontault-Combault, Paris, France
Santu Mofokeng, Gallery Momo, Johannesburg
Santu Mofokeng, David Krut Projects, New York
2003
Chasing Shadows, Memling Museum, Brugge, Belgium
2000
Sad Landscapes, Camouflage Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Chasing Shadows, Transparencies International, Berlin
1999
Black Photo Album/ Look At Me (photos), FNAC Montparnasse, France
1998
Lunarscapes, Nederland Foto Instituut, Rotterdam, Holland
Chasing Shadows, Nederland Foto Instituut (NFI), Rotterdam, Holland
Black Photo Album/ Look At Me (slides and text slides), NFI, Holland
1997
Chasing Shadows, Gertrude Posel Gallery, Wits University, South Africa
1995
Distorting Mirror/Townships Imagined, Worker´s Library, Johannesburg, South Africa
1994
Rumours / The Bloemhof Portfolio, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
1990
Like Shifting Sand, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Select Group Shows:
2024
A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Tate Modern, London, UK
35th Bienal de São Paulo - choreographies of the impossible, MAM, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
2023
Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary, The Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
EXPOSED, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Trace - Formations of Likeness - Photography and Video from the Walther Collection, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
Everybody Talks About the Weather, Fondazione Prada, Venice, Italy
35th Bienal de São Paulo - choreographies of the impossible, São Paulo, Brazil
Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK
2022-23
Hollow Earth: Art, Caves & The Subterranean Imaginary, Nottingham Contemporary, United Kingdom
2022
Africa. The Ecstatic Religions, Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, France
The Show is Over, South London Gallery, United Kingdom
2020-21
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and Other, Fotofest Biennal, Houston, USA
2019
Apologia della Storia - The Historian’s Craft, ICA Milano, Italy
2018-2019
Crossing Night, Idris Niam Foundation, Mexico City
Afrique. Les religions de l’extase, Musée d’ethnographie de Genève, Switzerland
2018
Days Without A Night, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan, New Delhi
The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2018, Fort Kochi, Kerala
2017
Space and Photography, Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, Austria
2016
Festival Internacional de Fotografia, SCAN, Tarragona
Taipei Biennial, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
Home Truths, IZIKO South African National Gallery, South Africa
Dubai Photo 2016 Exhibition, Dubai
South Africa, The British Museum, UK
2015
Álbum de Família, Centro Municipal de Arte Hélio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro
Between States of Emergency, Nelson Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg
The Problem of God, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein - Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Looking Back/Looking Forward, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa, Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver, USA
2014-15
INPUT / OUTPUT, Interface Worpswede, Worpswede die Museen, Germany
2014
Public Intimacy: Art and Other Ordinary Acts in South Africa, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco
Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille Museum door Fotografie, Amsterdam
8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin
SITE: Photography and National Trauma in South Africa, GUS University Stellenbosch Art Gallery, South Africa
2013-14
Rise and Fall of Apartheid: Photography and the Bureaucracy of Everyday Life, International Centre of Photography (New York), Haus der Kunst (Munich), Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea (Milan) and Museum Africa (Johannesburg)
Biographical Forms, Construction and Individual Mythology, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid
Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa, Smithsonian, Washington DC
2013
German Pavilion, 55th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
African Photography from The Walther Collection Distance and Desire: Encounters with the African Archive, The Walter Collection, Ulm, Germany
Umhlaba Wethu This is Our Land: 100 year commemoration of the 1913 Land Act, South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg
A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Centre Pompidou - Cinema 2, Paris, France
African Photography from East, West and South Africa, The National Gallery of Nyanza, Rwanda
My Joburg: Short Change, a photography exhibition of work by students and alumni of the Market Photo Workshop, La Maison Rouge, Paris
2012-13
Household Narratives. Beyond the Family Album, Diputación de Huesca, Spain
Poetry and Dream Collection Display, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2011
Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, The Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm, Germany
(Re)construções: Arte Contemporânea de África do Sul, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Niterói
2010
Darkroom: Photography and New Media in South Africa since 1950, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Virginia, USA
Animism, Extra City/M HKA, Antwerp, Belgium; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Generali Foundation, Vienna, Austria
Apartheid - Widerstand - Freiheit: Südafrikanische Fotografie 1950-2010, Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, Germany
2009
The Symbolic Efficiency of the Frame, T.I.C.A.B. Tirana International Contemporary Art Biannual, Albania
Imaginar_historiar, XVI Jornadas de Estudio de la Imagen, Madrid, Spain
Joburg Art Fair, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
Urban Reflections, Stills Scotland's Centre for Photography, Edinburgh, Scotland
2008
Home Lands - Land Marks: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
Rationalism of Nationalism, Warren Siebrits, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007
52nd Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Climate Change, Ruth First Fellowship Award Conference, Atlas Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
Apartheid – The South African Mirror, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain
Uniform: South Africa's New Clothes, Spanierman Modern, New York, USA
Reality Check: Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Südafrika, Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin; Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany; Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Germany; Galerie der Stadt Sindelfingen, Germany; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2004-7
Afrika Remix: Contemporary Art of a Continent, Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldof, Germany; Hayward Gallery, London, UK; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
2006
Exorcising Exoticism, International Contemporary Art Exhibition Taipei, Taiwan
1a Trienal de Luanda, Angola
Black, Brown + White, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
2005-6
Unsettled, Durban Art Gallery, South Africa; Reykjavik Museum of Photography, Iceland; Kristanstads Konsthall, Sweden; National Museum of Photography, Copenhagen, Denmark
2005
10 years 100 artists: Art in a Democratic South Africa, Bell-Roberts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2004
Post! Contemporary South African Photography, Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Forbidden City International Photography Festival, Beijing, China
New Identities: Contemporary South African Art, Bochum Museum, Germany; Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa; Pretoria Art Museum, South Africa
Ralentir vite, le Plateau/Frac Ile-de-France, Paris
Photography from South Africa, Christine Koenig Galerie, Vienna, Austria
2003
5es Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
6th Sharjah International Biennial, United Arab Emirates
2002
Documenta11, Kassel, Germany
25a Bienal de São Pãolo, Brasil
African Advertising Art, Iwalewa House, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Surviving Apartheid, Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France
Dislocation: Installations from South Africa, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain; Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
2001
The Short Century, Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa 1945-1994, Museum Vialla Stuck, Munich, Germany; Haus der Kulturen der Welt/Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany; MoMa/PS1, New York, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA
Africas: The Artist and the City, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Spain
2000
Unplugged V, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Man + Space, Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
Translation/Seduction/Displacement, White Box Gallery, New York, USA; Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, USA
The Song of the Earth: Biennials in Dialogue, Fridericianum Museum, Kassel, Germany
Positions Attitudes Actions, 4th Photo Biennale Rotterdam, Netherlands
L´etat des Choses, Kunst-werke Berlin, Germany
Rhizomes of Memory, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
1999
Africa by Africa: A Photographic View, Barbican Centre, London, UK
Identity and Environment, Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
A South Photographs Collective Exhibition, Area Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
1998
Blank__Architecture, Apartheid and After, Nederlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
3es Rencontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
Dreams and Clouds, KulturHuset, Stockholm, Sweden
Democracy´s Images, BildMuseet, Umea University, Sweden; Atlas Studios, Johannesburg, South Africa
1997
Alternating Currents, 2nd Johannesburg Biennale, South Africa
1996
In/Sight: African Photographers, 1940 to the Present, Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Images of Africa Festival, Copenhagen, Denmark
Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
Colours: Contemporary Art from South Africa, Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
1995
Transitions: Contemporary Art from South Africa, F-Stop Gallery, Bath, UK
3rd International Photography Biennale Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands
Panoramas of Passage: Changing Landscapes of South Africa, Standard Bank National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, South Africa
Les assises de l´Afrique, UNESCO, Paris, France
1994
1es Recontres de la Photographie Africaine, Bamako, Mali
This Land is our Land, Bloemfontein, South Africa
1993
FNAC - Mother Jones Award winners 1992, Light Factory, North Carolina, USA
Happy Sad Land, Internationale Fototage Herten, Germany
Montage ´93, International Festival of the Image, Rochester, USA
In Transit, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, USA
1991
AA Vita Art Now, Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa
Alltag schwarz–weiss: Fünf Fotografinnen und Fotografen aus Südafrika, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
1990
Zabalaza Cultural Festival, London, UK
History Workshop Open Day Festival, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Women´s Exhibition, Malibongwe Conference, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Going Home, Canon Image Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1989
Black Sash Human Rights Exhibition, Market Galleries, Johannesburg, South Africa
Collaborations:
2000
Rhizomes of Memory with David Goldblatt and George Hallett - Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway
1995
South African Photography with Peter Magubane - Institut Für Auslandsbeziehungen Gallery, Bonn, Germany
1990
Going Home with Paul Weinberg - Canon Image Centre, Amsterdam, Holland
Teaching:
2004
Master Class - Market Gallery Photography Workshop
Resident Artist at University of the Witwatersrand
1989
Total Photography Experience for Beginners" - The Market Gallery Photography Workshop, Johannesburg, S.A.
Curating:
2001
Compound to Kraal: Salvaging and Refiguring the Duggan-Cronin Collection, with Thierry Secretan.
The Workers´ Library and Museum, Newtown, Johannesburg.
1997
Fin de Sieclè, (Naivety in SA documentary Photography - Andrew Tshabangu and Lien Botha.) Nantes Festival, France
1996
2nd Recontre de la Photographie Africaine, with Marilyn Martin. Bamako, Mali
Awards and fellowships:
2016
Honorary Doctorate, WITS University, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016
International Photography prize, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena Foro Boario, Italy
2009
Prince Claus Lauriat, Netherlands
2007
Ruth First Fellowship, Johannesburg, South Africa
2001
DAAD Fellowship, Belin, Germany
1999
Contre Jour Residency, Marseille, France
1999
DAAD Fellowship, Worpswede, Germany
1998
Künstlerhaus Worpswede Fellowship, Germany
1997
Short-listed for the FNB Vita Award for the Visual Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa
1992
1st Mother Jones Award for Africa
1991
Ernest Cole Scholarship to study ICP, New York, USA
1990
AA Vita Award Nomination for Like Shifting Sand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Seminars, symposiums and panel discussions:
1999
"The Black Photo Album" Slide presentation - FNAC Montparnasse, Paris, France (March)
1999
"Trajectory of a Streetphotographer:1973-1998" Panel discussion and slide presentation on Taxonomy of African Art - College Arts Association Convention Centre, Los Angeles, Ca. (Feb)
1998
"3rd Recontre de la Bamako" Symposium"- Bamako, Mali (Dec)
1998
"Democracy´s Images" Symposium - BildMuseet, Umea, Sweden (October)
1998
"Images and Dreams" Symposium - KulturHuset, Stockholm, Sweden (October)
1995
"Transitions: Contemporary Art from South Africa", Panel Discussion and slide presentation - Green Park Station Brasserie, Bath, United Kingdom (May)
1993
"The Soweto Project" Lecture and slide presentation, Herten Fotofestival -Herten, Germany (October)
1992
"New Photography in a changing" Guest Lecture, Institute for Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities - North Western University, Chicago, U.S.A. (March)
1989
"Photography My Way" Slide presentation, Department of Journalism - Rhodes University, Grahamstown, S.A. (May)
Select photo-essays:
"End of the Line/ Where did the road lead when it lead nowhere (Auschwitz)"
"Shebeen"
"On the Tracks/ New York Underground"