Sam Nthlengethwa was born in Payneville, Springs, South Africa, on January 9th,1955.
EDUCATION
1976 - 1977 Johannesburg Art Foundation (part-time)
1977 - 1978 Two-year Fine Art Diploma, Rorkes Drift Art Centre, Natal : (full-time)
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1990 Cassirer Fine Art (with guest Daniel Phaladi)
1993 'Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow' Travelling show: Market Gallery, JHB; NSA Gallery (Durban);
1994/5 'Homage to Jazz' Standard Bank Young Artist Award travelling show
1995 'Senegalese Images' Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg
1996 'Mine Trip' Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg
1998 'Interiors' Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg.
2001 'Jozi People' Goodman Gallery, Hyde Park, Johannesburg
2002 'All that Jazz ' Kubatana Moderne Gallery, Peachtree Road, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2004 'Glimpses of the fifties and sixties' : Florence Lynch Gallery, Chelsea, New York, USA, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, Joao Ferreira Gallery, Cape Town.
2005 ‘Sam Nhlengethwa’, Axis Gallery, New York
2006 ‘Townships Re-visited’, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
2008 ‘Tributes’, Goodman Gallery Cape, Cape Town
TWO-MAN SHOWS AND COLLABORATIONS
1987 Two-man show with Madi Phala: Fuba Gallery
1989 Two-man show : with Gerard Sekoto, Cassirer Fine Art, Johannesburg
2000 Two-man show with Zwelethu Mthethwa : Seippel Art Gallery, Cologne, Germany
2001 ‘Sam meets Zwelethu’, a collaboration with Zwelethu Mthethwa : Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
2004 ‘In a City’, a collaboration with Andrew Tshabangu, Bag Factory Artists Studios, Fordsburg
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1981 Civic Centre, Kwa Thema, Springs
Haenggi Gallery, Johannesburg
1983 Shell Gallery, Johannesburg
1984 FUBA Gallery, Johannesburg
1985 'Tributaries', Africana Museum, sponsored by BMW
1986 Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery
1987 The Art Foundation (Thupelo)
1988 Cassirer Fine Art, Johannesburg
1989 Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery
1990 Thupelo Show, FUBA Gallery
Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
1995 'Africa 95', Whitechapel, London UK
1997 'Cross Over' Johannesburg to Nantes held in Nantes, France
1998 Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town
1999 '<>Fast Forward za'; Van Reekum Museum, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
South African Trade Exhibition, Mauritius
'Artery' Association for Visual Arts, Cape Town
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town
2000 'Artlook South Africa' : Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Chicago
The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town
Project Conflux – a touring exhibition started in Cape Town
2001 The Art Salon, Bay Hotel, Cape Town
2002 'Towards new Cultures' , Trevi Exhibition Area, Bolzano, Italy.
'South African Art from 1850 to 2002', Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
'African & African American Shared Understanding Project' , Atlanta, Georgia
'Ubuntu', Malaysia
2003 'Southern African Stories: A Print Collection' , Centre for Contemporary Art in the Fernandes Industrial Centre, Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago.
Florence Lynch Gallery, Chelsea, New York.
8th Havana Bienale, Cuba
2004 'New Identities - Contemporary South African Art ': Museum Bochum, Germany.
'POST – Contemporary South African photography ': Tama Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2005 'Unity Series' at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland.
2006 'Faces to Names': Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg
' Sam Nhlengethwa : Black Goats': Art on Paper, Johannesburg
‘From Apartheid to Democracy: The Freedom Struggle in South Africa and the American South’, Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum. Atlanta, USA.
COMMISSIONS
1991 Illustrations for the Sunday Star Magazine
Cover illustration for Alexandra Civic Association
1993 Weekly Mail Artists of South Africa Subscription promotion
Cover Illustration for Urban Foundation magazine
1994 Paperback book cover design for None to Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer
Paperback book cover design for Chirundu by Eskia Mphahlele
1995 Pope John Paul II Illustration for the Sunday Times Magazine
1996 Gauteng Provincial Legislature
1997 Anglo American Corporation
FEDSURE Life Assurance, Ltd.
1998 MTN Building, Sandton, Johannesburg
2000 Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Jazz
2001 Illustration for CD cover, posters and invitations
2004 Paperback book cover design for Soweto Inside Out by Joe Thloloe
Hardbook cover design for Soweto Blues, Jazz & Popular music and Politics in South Africa by Gwen Ansell
Designing of the Carlton Hotel Alumni commemorative plate
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
DaimlerChrysler Headquarters, Pretoria
Millennium Consolidated Investment, Sandton
Private collections in South Africa and abroad
NOMINATIONS AND AWARDS
1988 AA Vita Awards Nominee
1991 AA Vita Awards Nominee
Triangle International Artists Workshop, New York, USA
1992 Delfina Studio Trust Summer Award, London, UK
AA Vita Awards Nominee
1993 Bertrams VO Art for Africa Finalist, Johannesburg
Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for 1994
1994 First National Bank Vita Awards nominee, Johannesburg
TENQ African Workshop - Senegal, West Africa
1995 African Studies Association conference, Florida (USA)
1996 First National Bank Vita Awards Nominee
1999 Medicins Sans Frontiers project 'Art without Frontiers' , Dubai (UAE) where 40 international artists took part in painting the world’s longest painting to raise funds for MSF.
2003 Havana Biennale, Cuba
RELATED ACTIVITIES
1992 - FUBA [Johannesburg] : Part-time teaching until mid -1992
2000 - College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Chicago, USA : Conducting Liberal Arts Workshops and presenting lectures in collaboration with Associate Professor Chuck Boone as part of the Artlook South Africa project.
2000 - Havana, Cuba : participant in the filming of the 'Afro-Cuban Connection' documentary
2000 - MTN Art Institute Community project : Conducting art workshops in various schools around the country
2000 - Gerard Sekoto Foundation Community project : Involved in a murals painting project with students (Northern Province & Sophiatown )
2000 - 'Secure the Future' : a Bristol Myers Squibb art project to promote HIV/AIDS research.
2001 - Cameroon : 'Lines of Connection': an MTN Art Institute project - exhibiting and facilitating education workshops for students from Douala, Cameroon.
2001 - Gerard Sekoto Foundation project in partnership with Mamelodi Heritage Foundation, De Beers and Pretoria Art Museum in a murals painting project involving local students
2002 - 'Johannesburg Art City' visual arts exhibition Wall Project (part of the WSSD)
2002 - MTN Art Institute art competition judging in schools.
2003 - Matric Art Seminar project including an illustrated lecture to Art & Design students from PE Technikon and Rhodes University
2004 - London : Triangle Workshop networking with Sir Robert Loder
PUBLICTIONS
_______. 1999. The Money Standard. 1 (4) p26.
_______. 1995. FNB Vita Art Now. p36. ISBN 0 620 20197 5
_______. 1997. 1997. Vuka SA. 2 (3) p6-7. ISSN 1025-2134
BARNES, R. 1999. The 20th Century Artbook. Phaidon Press Limited, London, p336. ISBN: 0 7148 3850
WILLIAMS, M. Jazz Heritage. 1999. Vol 4. Oxford University Press. p16-17. ISSN 1560-7720
GUEZ, N. 1992. L’ Art Africain Contemporain / Contemporary African Art: Guide Edition (Association Dialogue Entre Les Cultures). 92-94, p27. 1992-4. ISBN 2-909711
OLIPHANT, A. 1995. ‘A Human Face: The Death of Biko and South African Art' in Seven Stories about Modern Art in Africa. Whitechapel Gallery, London, p258.
OLIPHANT, A. et al. 2004. Democracy X: Marking the present, re-presenting the past. University of South Africa Press, Pretoria.
PERRYER, S. ed. 2004. 10 Years 100 Artists: Art in a Democratic South Africa. Bell-Roberts in association with Struik Publishers, Cape Town. ISBN:1868729877
HOBBS, P & RANKIN, E. 2003. Rorke’s Drift: Empowering Prints. Double Storey, Cape Town. ISBN: 1-919930-13-2
WILLIAMSON, S. 1989. Resistance Art in South Africa. David Philip, Cape Town.
YOUNGE, G. 1988. ‘The Next Million Years’ in Leadership 7 (5). NAIL, Johannesburg, p 58-65.