Talk

MA Curatorial Practice presents a talk with Nontobeko Ntombela, a lecturer in the Department of Curatorial, Public, and Visual Cultures at the Wits School of Arts. Ntombela will discuss three exhibitions that have focused on Black women artists whose work has been prolific and have made significant contributions to South African art of the twentieth century. Given South Africa’s history of oppressive regimes, women artists from this period are often inconsistently documented. The three exhibitions are: “A Fragile Archive” (2013), Johannesburg Art Gallery; “When Rain Clouds Gather: South African Black Women Artists 1940–2000” (2022), Norval Foundation, Cape Town; and “‘Then I Knew I Was Good At Painting’: Esther Mahlangu, A Retrospective ” (2024), Iziko National Art Gallery, Cape Town, and Wits Art Museum Johannesburg.

Having worked in art galleries, museums, and NGOs, such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban University Art Gallery, BAT Centre, and others over the course of 12 years, Ntombela joined Wits University in 2012, shifting her curatorial practice toward more research-intensive projects on contemporary South African Black women artists of the early twentieth century. She is also the co-editor with Reshma Chhiba of The Yoni Book (2019). Ntombela has served on various boards and committees for various organizations, including the Visual Arts Network of South Africa; the Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation; the National Arts Council; and Arts For Human Rights Trust, among others.

The Curatorial Roundtable, an international forum for curators and institutional leaders to discuss formative and current projects, is hosted by Steven Henry Madoff, founding chair of MA Curatorial Practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.