acrylic, graphite pencil and oil pastel on paper

Artwork date: 2020
Signature details: signed and dated bottom right

(1)

89 x 76 cm; framed size: 100 x 86 x 6.5 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

Stevenson, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

This drawing formed part of a larger body of work Simphiwe Ndzube created in 2020, in isolation at his makeshift home studio in Los Angeles during the pandemic as a response to, and result of the restrictions imposed during that time. Working on large sheets of paper, Ndzube combined acrylics, spray paint, graphite, and oil pastel to render his colourful mythical figures – each inhabiting their own fable.

The collection of quirky portraits not only extended the mixed-media approach characteristic of Ndzube’s practice but continued his magical realism, marking a new allegorical chapter in his fantastical universe.

A selection of these drawings was exhibited for Ndzube’s solo show New Works on Paper at Stevenson in Amsterdam that same year. In describing the works, he writes:

I’ve been making studies in light of the emotions brought up by COVID-19 and the uncertainty of the world. The works portray feelings of despair, hope, and helplessness as well as the precarious nature of interpersonal trust and fear of the unknown. These studies, which signify a return to basics and an emphasis on the human subject, allow me to really get to know my characters: their evolution, depths, and physicality.[1]

^{[1] Stevenson.info (2023). Simphiwe Ndzube [online]. https://www.stevenson.info/exhibition/5400. (Accessed 26 October 2023)}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Cementing his status as a top up-and-coming contemporary artist of international renown, Simphiwe Ndzube’s solo exhibition Chorus is currently on view at BLUM Los Angeles.
• He was also recently included in the Frieze Los Angeles group exhibition Boil, Toil and Trouble, presented by Art in Common (2023).
• In 2022, he formed part of the show Christen Sveaas Art Foundation: The Unseen, Selected by Hurvin Anderson at the Whitechapel Gallery in London. He also took part in Pacific Gold for the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art in California.
• The Denver Museum presented Ndzube’s Oracles of the Pink Universe, a large-scale solo exhibition which also marked his first museum solo exhibition in the USA. Other institutional solo exhibitions have taken place at Museo Kaluz, Mexico City in 2019 and at the CC Foundation, Shanghai in 2018.
• In 2019, Ndzube exhibited at the 15^th Lyon Biennale and was included in the Open Borders exhibition for the 14^th Curitiba International Biennial in Brazil.

COLLECTIONS

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Pérez Art Museum, Miami; The CC Foundation, Shanghai; The Denver Art Museum; Museo Kaluz, Mexico City; University of Cape Town Art Collection; Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town.