2011
Sarah, Theodora and Senzeni in Johannesburg, Art On Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010
Senzeni Marasela. Beyond Booty: Covering Sarah Baartman and other Tales, Axis Gallery, New York and New Jersey in association with submerged art, USA
2009
Witness, Art on Paper, Johannesburg, South Africa
“Oh my God you look like shit. Who let you out of the house looking like that?”, Solo performance, Sternersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
JONGA – Look at Me! A Museum of Women, Dolls and Memories, Devon Arts residency, Devon, Scotland
2005
Theodorah and Other Women, Art on Paper, johannesburg, South Africa
2004
Three Women, Three Voices, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2002
Upstream Public Art Project, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2000
Fresh, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
GROUP SHOWS
2018
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town International Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa
2017
Africa. Raccontare un Mondo, PAC, Milan, Italy
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, AFRONOVA, Pioneer Works, New York, USA
2016
1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, AFRONOVA, Somerset House, London, UK
KIN, HANGAR Centro de Investigação Artística, Lisbon, Portugal
2014
Ik Beem Afrikander, Johannesburg, South Africa
Contemporary South African Art Exhibition, Yale University, New Haven, USA
Nomad Bodies, Royal Academy of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium – Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2013
Weather Report, Univeristy of Potchefstroom, North-West Province, South Africa
Africa curating Africa, ABSA Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa, (Travelling Exhibition)
2012
Ongoing: Present Tense: Arts of Contemporary Africa, Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA
Red, 5 Pieces Gallery, Berne, Switzerland
ME1, Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2011
New traditions: Louise McCagg & Senzeni Marasela, collaboration at A.I.R. Gallery, in Association with Axis Gallery and Alma-on-Dobbin, New York, USA
Impressions from South Africa: Printed Art/1965 to Now, The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, MoMA, New York, USA
2010 – 2013
Translations into Jewelery, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa – Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 – 2011
DARKROOM: South African Photography and New Media 1950 – Present, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, USA – Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA
2009
Dystopia, Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa – Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa – Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Mangaung, Bloemfontein, South Afrifca – Jan Colle Galerij, Ghent, Belgium.
Beauty and Pleasure, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo, Norway
Unbounded: New Art for a New Century, Newark Museum, New Jersey, USA
Developing Democracy: A New Focus on South African Photography, Kyle Kauffman, Gallery, New York, USA
2008
Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Black Womanwood: Icons, Images and Ideologies of the African Body, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, USA- Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, USA – San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, USA
2007
Jive Soweto, Hector Petersen Museum, Soweto, South Africa
2006
Erase Me from Who I Am, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain
2005
Click, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004
Ten Voices, Ten Years of Democracy, Public Art project of the City of Rome, Italy
Public Private, Auckland Public Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2003
The Body and the Arcvhive, Artists’ Space, New York, USA
2002
Aids in Africa, Wellesley College, Wellesley, USA
2001
Sample E.C, Gertrude Posel Gallery, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Open House Exhibition, Umea Art Academy, Umea, Sweden
2000
Margins in the Mainstream, Namibian National Gallery, Windhoek, Namibia
Translation/Seduction/Displacement: Post-Conceptual and Photographic Work, South African Artists, White Box, New York, USA
Potrat Afrika, Haus der Kulturen Der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Art Region End of Africa, Listafen Reykjavikur Kjarvalsstadir, Reyjavik, Iceland
1999
Market Photo Workshop Exhibition, Rembrandt van Rijn Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Postcards from South Africa, Axis Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Truth Veils, Getrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
1998
Family Ties, Sandton Civic Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Democracy’s Images, Bildmusset, Umea, Sweden
Women’s Voices, Mercedes Benz Museum, Stuttgart, Germany
1997
Not Quite a Christmas Exhibition, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Martienseen Prize Exhibition, Getrude Posel Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
BIENNALES
2005
Beijing Biennale, South African Representative, Beijing, China
Artist Talk with Senzeni Marasela, By Koyo Kouoh, 1:54 FORUM London, October 2017
Politica, economia, tradizione e futuro: lʼarte africana sbarca a Milano, TGCOM 24, August 2017
Raccontare un mondo. L’Africa subsahariana in mostra al PAC di Milano, Artslife, July 2017
PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, E-Flux, July 2017
Africa, Telling a World, Vogue Italy, June 2017
Raccontare l’Africa. Al Pac di Milano 33 artisti esplorano un continene, le opere, La Repubblica, June 2017
‘Covering Sarah’ Exorcises Pain, Mail and Guardian, March 2017
London Updates: poche sorprese da 1:54. La fiera dell’arte africana non convince, Artribune, October 2016
56th Venice Biennale, An Uneven African Presence, Another Africa, May 2015
SA trips as Joburg lands on the steps of the Venice Biennale, Mail & Guardian, April 2015
Senzeni Mthwakazi Marasela, Profile of 2015 Future Great Artist, selected by Koyo Kouoh, Art Review, March 2015
Senzeni Marasela, Africanah, October 2014
Senzeni Marasela: In Character and in a state of perpetual performance, Business Day Live, August 2014
Sarah Baartman Focus, Sowetan Live, July 2011
The Museum of Modern Art highlights Impressions of South Africa From 1965 to Now, Art Daily, March 2011
“Born in Thokoza, South Africa, Marasela studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, where she obtained a BA Fine Arts degree in 1998. In 2003 she started a project titled Theodorah comes to Johannesburg, a durational performance based on her mother Theodorah’s stories about travels from the rural area of Mvenyane to Johannesburg, a journey of 11 hours. Like many young black women in the city, her mother was traumatised by events that took place in apartheid South Africa during the 1960s. Many black women returned to live in the countryside and many more were forced to undertake journeys into strangeness. Marasela wore a yellow dress that her mother gave her, taking on Theodorah as an alter ego. The artist has always felt that Theodorah’s story was representative of that of many black women in South Africa. The emblematic yellow dress has been translated into drawings, prints and thread works, always with the figure’s back to the audience. The story of Theodorah never left Marasela’s work and has at times been combined with that of Sarah Baartman (who was ‘exhibited’ around nineteenth-century Europe as the ‘Hottentot Venus’) and of the artist herself.
In 2013, Theodorah took another journey, for the photographic series Ijeremani Lam. Making reference to Njabulo Ndebele’s novel The Cry of Winnie Mandela (2003), Theodorah is pictured alone in Johannesburg looking for her husband, Gebane Mthetyane. All the women in Ndebele’s book are left by their husbands under various circumstances – the apartheid migration system frequently left black women alone and the black family disintegrated – and these women are forced to embark on a period of purgatory, waiting for the reunion with their families.
Marasela is interested in the multiplicity contained within the experience of waiting: in the pathologies of women who are either forced to wait or choose to wait. Ndebele’s novel, which oscillates between fiction and documentary, clearly states this as we peruse the lives of his female characters. In the angst of their wait they begin an imaginary conversation with Winnie Mandela. The latter waited publicly for Nelson Mandela for 27 years and subjected herself to much scrutiny and the dissection of her own privacy. There is a perceptible haunting ache that runs through Ijeremani Lam that is, nevertheless, difficult to describe. What fascinates me in Marasela’s work is that it addresses and carries out, by way of reenactments, a characteristic feature of contemporary life in Africa: waiting. Perhaps a waiting such as is portrayed in Abderrahmane Sissako’s drama Waiting for Happiness (2002), in which the main character has been away from home for so long – waiting somewhere in the desert to migrate to Europe – that he doesn’t even remember his local language. Marasela adds complexity to the act of waiting and translates it into an affecting visual language charged with political and historical gravity. ” Koyo Kouoh
Senzeni Marasela’s work – in media including embroidery, print and video as well as performance – has been widely exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the US. Her work features in prominent local and international collections, including MoMA, New York.
Copyright Nico Krijno, Courtesy of the Johannesburg Pavillion
