Lawrence Lemaoana

Lawrence Lemaoana is an artist with a Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg. He currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is currently reading for a master’s degree at the University of South Africa’s Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology Department, where he is also a junior lecturer in Visual Art. His body of work has, as its departure, a fascination with the role of the mass media in present-day South Africa. Seeing the relationship between media and the 'people' as inherently problematic, he identifies and repurposes existing control apparatuses, questioning modes of control within representation; specifically, who gets to represent those in control. The power of the media to act as didactic tool or propagandistic weapon, to reveal and shape the psyche, or group consciousness. Lemaoana's embroidered text works are emblazoned with appropriated political dictums woven in kanga fabric - a material with its own complex ancestry.

Here, Lemaoana wages criticism on the agency of local media, and its ability to shape social consciousness: the result turns didactic and propagandistic tools on their head. He regularly exhibits in France, most notably in the context of memorable exhibitions at Foundation Louis Vuitton, La Maison Rouge – Antoine de Galbert Foundation, MAC-VAL, Les abattoirs, Toulouse but also in the United States, Norway, Italy, and of course, in South Africa, at the IZIKO South African National Gallery and Wits Art Museum, Johannesburg, South Africa. His work features in prominent local and international collections, including Sindika Dokolo Fondation, Luanda, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, Louis Vuitton Fondation, Paris, and Lafayette Anticipation, Paris. Lemaoana is co-founder of the Occupying the Gallery a project that aims to transform gallery spaces into makeshift open studios for mentorship and artistic development.