Born in 1980 in New York, Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi currently lives and works in Johannesburg.

Nkosi obtained her BA from Harvard University (2004) and her MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York (2008). She divides her time between studio work, performance, and navigating the field of art as social practice. Her work investigates the lived consequences of imperial histories and the personal dimensions of political identities, collectivity, and futurity, among other concepts.

Arena V by the artist is currently exhibited as a site-specific mural and installation in the lobby of the Hammer Museum. The artist presented, in collaboration with East Side Projects, the multimedia work Equations for a Body at Rest, across public spaces in Birmingham as part of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Her solo exhibitions include Stadium, Stevenson, Amsterdam (2023); Landings, Stevenson, Cape Town (2022); Gymnasium, Stevenson, Johannesburg (2020); Gymnasium, The Africa Center, New York (2019); and The Beginning of Stories (Part 1 of Many), Seedspace Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee (2017).

Notable group exhibitions include Movements, Museum Hilversum, the Netherlands (2024); In Terms of Sports, New Taipei City Art Museum, Taiwan (2024); Power Plays, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburg, USA (2024);Thinking Historically in the Present, the 15th Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2023); Resistance Training: Arts, Sports, and Civil Rights, the Broad Museum of Art, Michigan State University (2023); Fix Your Pony, Naughton Gallery at Queen’s University, Belfast (2023); CHAMPS, Granville Centre Art Gallery, Cumberland (2023); Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, Orlando Museum of Art, Florida (2023); THE GYM, Soho Studios, Vienna (2022); When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2022) and Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland (2024); New Formations, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Massachusetts, USA (2022); How to Make a Country, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Angoulême, France (2021); Mixed Company, Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2021); Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto (2020); NIEPODLEGŁE, Women, Independence and National Discourse, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (2018); and Art Afrique, Le Nouvel Atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2017), among others.

She has participated in residencies including the Pala Lab (2018); XXVIIes Ateliers Internationaux, FRAC des Pays de la Loire, France (2013); VAIVEM, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2013); Vanilla Facts, Berlin (2012); Cruces International, Montevideo, Uruguay (2011); and the Bag Factory Artist Residency (2009).

She has received grants from Pro-Helvetia (2019); Goethe-Institut (2018, 2010); National Arts Council of South Africa (2015, 2009); Virginia Wellington Cabot Foundation (2008); and fellowships, including the School of Visual Arts Alumni Award Fellowship (2006); Pforzheimer Foundation Public Service Fellowship (2006); and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (2002).

Nkosi is the recipient of the Helgaard Steyn Prize in Painting (2023); the Tollman Award for the Visual Arts (2019) and Philippe Wamba Prize in African Studies (2004)

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