Lungiswa Gqunta

Gqunta’s practice reveals the hidden violence and systemic legacies of Colonialism in South Africa and encompasses assemblage, installation, video and works on paper. Using found materials and drawing upon a relationship to landscape, her work conjures multiple versions of the present. Gqunta brings a lexicon of the home, childhood ritual and urban townships into her sculptures, using found beer bottles, razor wire, bedlinen and furniture among other materials. Scent, including from petrol and the perceived threat that it brings, and sound, such as the rhythmic chanting in her videos that connects to a concern for the spiritual, are also important. Whether displacing the symbols of suburban luxury or revealing the masked realities of the everyday, Gqunta creates immediate encounters with political apathy, privilege and the underlying forces that continue to structure life

This exhibition of new and recent work by Lungiswa Gqunta will be the sculptor’s largest to date internationally.

Lungiswa Gqunta lives and works in Cape Town. Her solo exhibitions include Tending to the harvest of dreams 2021, ZOLLAMTMMK Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt; Lungiswa Gqunta 2019, Apalazzo Gallery, Brescia, Italy; Qwitha 2018, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town; Poolside Conversations 2017, Kelder Projects, London and Qokobe 2016, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town. Group exhibitions include Ubuntu a Lucid Dream 2021, Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Living Forgiving Remembering 2020, Museum Arnheim, Netherlands; Garden of Earthly Delights 2019, Gropius Bau, Berlin and The Planetary Garden, Cultivating Coexistence, Manifesta Biennial 12, Palermo (2018). Gqunta attended the Gasworks Residency, London; Women on Aeroplanes workshop, Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos, and the Nirox Residency, Cradle of Humankind in 2018. Gqunta is also one of the founding members of iQhiya, with whom she participated in Documenta 14 and Glasgow International.