Sam Nhlengethwa My daughter's grand piano, 2020 Mixed media on canvas Work: 130 x 110 cm
Over the course of his career, Nhlengethwa’s ongoing Interiors series has become an important space for the artist to pay various tributes, bringing cultural icons into conversation with his practice and each other. The painting-collage works comprise an eclectic constellation of references and are presented together as their own contained interior space.
The central motif in this work is a baby grand piano, which occupies the foreground, inspired by Nhlengethwa’s daughter who often practices on her piano at their home. It is complemented by references to two existing Nhlengethwa works, a lithograph from a series on goats and painting-collage of Miles Davis. These works are painstakingly redrawn within this new work, and as Nhlegethwa contends, they constitute an “original on its own”.
