Moshekwa Langa South African, b. 1975
Ntotoke, 2020 - 23
Indian ink, acrylic paint, iridescent pigment, pigment and ink on paper
162 x 122 cm
63 3/4 x 48 in
63 3/4 x 48 in
Moshekwa Langa’s works 'Nandemone' and 'Ntotoke' (2020–2023) is a large-scale work on paper measuring 162 × 122 cm, created with Indian ink, acrylic, iridescent pigment, and other ink-based media. Produced...
Moshekwa Langa’s works 'Nandemone' and 'Ntotoke' (2020–2023) is a large-scale work on paper measuring 162 × 122 cm, created with Indian ink, acrylic, iridescent pigment, and other ink-based media. Produced over a three-year span, the work reflects Langa’s evolving process and his ongoing engagement with themes of memory, displacement, and mapping. Known for his abstract yet deeply personal visual language, Langa often layers material, text, and mark-making to construct what he describes as “mental maps” — visualizations of interior and exterior geographies shaped by migration and belonging. In Nandemone, the iridescent surface shifts with light, suggesting the fluidity of recollection and time, while the material density recalls sedimented histories and emotional landscapes. Created amid a period of global change, the work embodies Langa’s exploration of transformation and the tension between home and elsewhere, continuing his practice of turning abstraction into a site of personal and collective mapping.
BIOGRAPHY
Moshekwa Langa (b. 1975, Bakenberg, South Africa) is an Amsterdam-based artist whose indexical, materially sensitive practice spans drawing, installation, video, and photography, often using found and everyday materials to map his own biography and the psychological borders shaped by his upbringing in an apartheid-era “Homeland.” His large-scale, dreamlike works on paper emerge from layers of marks, collage, and gesture, creating visualizations of memories, events, and emotions that resist language. Langa has had solo exhibitions at KM21, The Hague (2022), Kunsthalle Bern, Modern Art Oxford, The Renaissance Society in Chicago, and the Krannert Art Museum, and has taken part in major international exhibitions including the 10th Berlin Biennale, 13th Dakar Biennale, the Lyon Biennale (2011), the Venice Biennale (2003, 2009), the Bienal de São Paulo (1998, 2010), and the Johannesburg Biennale (1997). His work is held in key public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Modern, London; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
BIOGRAPHY
Moshekwa Langa (b. 1975, Bakenberg, South Africa) is an Amsterdam-based artist whose indexical, materially sensitive practice spans drawing, installation, video, and photography, often using found and everyday materials to map his own biography and the psychological borders shaped by his upbringing in an apartheid-era “Homeland.” His large-scale, dreamlike works on paper emerge from layers of marks, collage, and gesture, creating visualizations of memories, events, and emotions that resist language. Langa has had solo exhibitions at KM21, The Hague (2022), Kunsthalle Bern, Modern Art Oxford, The Renaissance Society in Chicago, and the Krannert Art Museum, and has taken part in major international exhibitions including the 10th Berlin Biennale, 13th Dakar Biennale, the Lyon Biennale (2011), the Venice Biennale (2003, 2009), the Bienal de São Paulo (1998, 2010), and the Johannesburg Biennale (1997). His work is held in key public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the Art Institute of Chicago; Tate Modern, London; and the Johannesburg Art Gallery.