Sam Nhlengethwa

Born 9 January 1955, Payneville, Springs, South Africa 

Sam is renowned for his pulsing collage cut-ups, which capture the extreme energy of township life like a jazz anthem by Hugh Masekela. From 1970 he lived in KwaThema, near Springs, and it is the spirit of his home turf that shines through in the congested, jivey township vignettes were an early hallmark.

Since 1993, he has been living in Benoni surrounded by the mine dumps of Johannesburg's East Rand. In his series of hand-printed lithographs, Interiors, he depicts interiors from "all facets of our society, from the informal settlements to the established suburbs and urban life". Unlike many of his earlier works, these images are serene and unpopulated. Personal difference can be seen in small details that furnish the brightly coloured rooms, which co-exist in tranquility beside one another. Each interior, from A Hotel in Randfontein to My Grandmother's Kitchen in the Sixties, has something unique and defining about it. Each occupies its own bit of South African space.

COLLECTIONS 

Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
Durban Art Gallery
Johannesburg Art Gallery
Tatham Art Gallery, Pietermaritzburg
Botswana Art Museum
World Bank, USA
Mobil Court, Cape Town
Anglo American, Johannesburg
Sasol, Johannesburg
GENCOR, Johannesburg
Standard Bank Head Office, Johannesburg
BMW, Pretoria
Mercedes-Benz, Johannesburg
TELKOM
ABSA
Nedcor, Johannesburg
Mandela Foundation, Johannesburg
Johannesburg Stock Exchange
SA Broadcasting Corporation, Auckland Park, Johannesburg
Daimler Chrysler Headquarters, Pretoria
Millennium Consolidated Investment, Sandton
Private collections in South Africa and abroad

Click here to view Fifteen Years After