At the core of Hlobo’s practice is the exploration of his own identity, as he attempts to ascertain qualities that exist outside of codifying labels associated with gender, sexuality, and ethnicity. In order to challenge the restrictive terminology typically used surrounding identity, Hlobo incorporates visual tropes that relate to his ethnic and cultural background, while also questioning the shifting and subjective nature inherent in these signifiers. Language and narrative specifically play both a formal and conceptual role in Hlobo’s work. As a descendent of one of South Africa’s largest indigenous communities, the Xhosa, Hlobo always titles his work in the Xhosa language, imbuing the piece with a subtle personal narrative about his experience of creating, which he often references in his titles. Hlobo titles his work in Xhosa as a way to challenge the generic term of ‘South Africa’ from being used to describe his work, and also to assert the potency of his cultural identity. Moreover, this is a strategy to engage his audience in the act of cultural translation, which initiates the excavation of the works’ layered meanings.

Often, Hlobo leverages the associations weighted in specific materials—ribbons representing the feminine, leather the masculine—merging the two in his paintings like Isingxobo (2018) to pull apart this binary assimilation and present a more holistic and multifaceted approach. The elegant arcs and arabesques of the ribbon stitching are mimicked in large sculptures of moulded bronze, copper, and brass instruments. In both the paintings and sculptures, the act of transforming specific materials is integral to the work. The transformation of these raw materials into a larger aesthetic form serves as a metaphor for the constructed and fluid nature of identity as well as the very act of reinvention itself. A pattern can be seen throughout Hlobo’s career that reveals his concerns with the cycle of birth, life, and death that he has consistently explored in various manners where the life cycle can be visually translated into a present object.

Nicholas Hlobo (b. 1975, Cape Town, South Africa; lives and works in Johannesburg) received a fine art degree from Johannesburg’s Technikon Witwatersrand in 2002. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organised at SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA (2019); Uppsala Art Museum, Sweden (2017); Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Netherlands (2016); Locust Projects, Miami (2013); National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (2011); Savannah College of Art and Design, Lacoste, France (2010); Tate Modern, London (2008); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2008); and SCAD Museum of Art, GA (2007). Select group exhibitions featuring his work include Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton (2017); Energy and Process, Tate Modern, London (2016); The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, traveled to SCAD Museum of Art, GA (2014); and Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (2015); A History (art architecture design, from the 80s to now), Centre Pompidou, Paris (2015); Intense Proximity, La Triennale 2012, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); and Flow, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2008). Hlobo has participated in multiple biennials, including the 18^th Biennale of Sydney, Australia (2012); the 54^th Venice Biennale (2011); the 6^th Liverpool Biennial (2010); and the 3^rd Guangzhou Triennial, China (2008). His work is included in numerous international public and private collections, including the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town; and the Tate Modern, London.

Hlobo has received numerous honours and distinctions, such as the Rolex Visual Arts Protégé (2010–2011), the Standard Bank Young Artist Award (2009), and the Tollman Award for Visual Art (2006).