Ka Zenzile was born in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape, in 1986. He has a MA Fine Art from the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. He won the Tollman Award for Visual Art in 2014 and the Michaelis Prize in 2013. He was among three artists selected for the South African Pavilion of the 2019 Venice Biennale, curated by Nomusa Makhubu and Nkule Mabaso under the title The Stronger We Become.
Read MoreHe has held six solo exhibitions at Stevenson, Cape Town and Johannesburg (2013-18), in addition to Autobiography of Mawande Ka Zenzile: Iingcuka ezombethe iimfele zeegusha at VANSA, Cape Town (2011), and Crawling Nation at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town (2009). Group exhibitions include Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town (2020); Tell Freedom. 15 South African Artists at Kunsthal KAde (2018); Looking after Freedom at the Michaelies Galleries, Cape Town (2017); I Love You Sugar Kane (2016) and Material Matters: New Art from Africa (2015) at the ICA Indian Ocean, Port Louis, Mauritius; Between the Lines at the Michaelis Galleries (2013); Umahluko at Lookout Hill (as part of Cape 09) and X Marks the Spot at the AVA (2008).
Ka Zenzile has completed residencies at Cité internationale des arts (2019); the Nafasi Art Space, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (2014) and he was awarded a residency in Norway in 2008 as part of the Abazobi project, organised by the Arkivet Foundation and the Robben Island Museum. Ka Zenzile has been a regular participant in academic conferences including Between the Lines, Michaelis School of Fine Art and Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig (2013); The Exuberant Project, Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts, University of Cape Town (2012) and Thinking Africa + Diaspora Differently at the Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town (2011). Many of these projects have been accompanied by his performances.
