THENJIWE NIKI NKOSI

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi awarded the Helgaard Steyn Prize in Painting

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi has been awarded the 2023 Helgaard Steyn Prize in Painting for her work Ceremony (2020) and receives R675 000 in prize money.

“To be a working, professional artist is nothing short of a dream come true for me. It is a gift in itself”, the artist commented. “And to be honoured for the work that I make through this incredibly generous award is so meaningful. Prizes of this nature are very important in supporting artists’ careers - giving us the means to focus on developing our practises without the demand of generating income. Prizes, awards, grants and donations are an essential part of the arts eco-system. And this prize is a reminder of the great  importance of  giving to the arts: whether it be to arts education, to supporting artists young and old, or working towards the preservation of our country’s artistic history,” she said.

The judging panel, convened by Angela de Jesus from the University of the Free State with Annemi Conradie from North-West University and Shonisani Netshia from the University of Johannesburg, commented: “Ceremony by Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi represents and encapsulates a particular moment in time in today’s contemporary society and is laden with rich nuanced and multifaceted meanings around notions of race, gender, identity and class.

Nkosi comments on and challenges societal and cultural constructs, providing a new possible narrative of relevant Black female experiences which will remain so for the foreseeable future, reverberating Mwenya Kabwe’s observation in the catalogue essay that Black women’s bodies remain under a historically enduring scrutiny in athletics and beyond it (2020).  Nkosi successfully ‘decolonizes’ gymnastics, a historically and predominantly white dominated sport, by depicting a group of brown girls intimately huddled in a moment of prayer or motivation, sharing an embrace of solidarity, human engagement, strengthening their sisterhood in their soft pastel leotards. The girls are given a sense of agency and identity while retaining their anonymity, highlighting their uniqueness, evoking a sense of belonging and inclusivity- these Black girls become a symbol of hope to many up and coming Black female athletes.

“On a technical level, Nkosi skillfully layers multiple thinned out layers of oil paint on linen to achieve smooth, flat and opaque colours. She demonstrates mastery of layering which she began as a Visual Art student.” Nkosi’s practice investigates the lived consequences of imperial histories and the personal dimensions of political identities, collectivity, and futurity, among other concepts.

She comments as follows on the subject of Ceremony: “Some months into the [2020 Coronavirus] lockdown I started feeling the need for something more tender, a kind of nostalgia for a time where we could be in close proximity, connecting through touch and supporting each other in more physical ways. Around that same time, set off by the murder of George Floyd, there was this increased attention on violence against Black people and people of colour in the United States in particular. Reflecting on that, as well as the histories (and present experiences) of violence in both South Africa and the United States, led to a period of overwhelm for me. And I felt that it called me to make images that were antithesis of that violence – images of moments of tenderness and love and support and safety among us”. The painting is in the Norval Foundation Collection, Cape Town, and was exhibited (digitally) at the 2020 Art Basel Miami Art Fair, in the Mixed Company exhibition at the Norval Foundation (2021) and in When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a large-scale group exhibition at Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town (2023).

For more details about the practice of Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi visit Stevenson.info. For any queries contact the Helgaard Steyn Awards at info@HelgaardSteynPryse.co.za.

Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi

Ceremony, 2020 / 115x145cm / Oil on canvas / Courtesy of the artist and Stevenson, Cape Town / Johannesburg / Amsterdam. / ©Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi / Photo: Nina Lieska