Pebofatso Mokoena
Pebofatso Mokoena was born in Alberton in August 1993, 8 months before South Africa’s first democratic elections. He completed his high school career at Bracken High School in 2011 acquiring both a distinction in Visual Art and the Design School Art Trophy. In 2014 he completed his NDip (Visual Art) at the University of Johannesburg. Mokoena has participated in a number of competitions and curated exhibitions including Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards, Diptych, That Art Fair 2015, Fresh Produce in 2014, Inner Nature in Cape Town, Fortunes Remixed, and South African Voices: A New Generation of Printmakers in Washington DC.
Mokoena’s interest lies in the entangled organisations of how organic and man-made geographies shape multiple environments. Through interdisciplinary practices which include, primarily, painting and printmaking – but not limited to drawing and film and the use of online platforms, Pebofatso uses his own personal narratives and a consistent application of experimental enquiry as tools to make sense of the chaotic integratedness of the current world he lives in.
Mokoena’s work orbits in between critical discourses across the spheres of visual art architecture, global culture, and aesthetics. These interests at times open and bridge gaps in his own understanding of the importance of being alive in a world that, in theory, in becoming smaller and smaller.
Pebofatso Mokoena’s work lies in the Springs Art Library Collection, the South African Embassy Art Collection (in Washington, D.C.), the Smithsonian Museum of African Art in Washington DC, and other private collections.
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Pebofatso Mokoena first collaborated with the team at David Krut Workshop (DKW) in the production of a hard-ground etching in 2018. It was titled Statistical Weakness and later shown at the 2019 iterations of Fine Art Print Fair (hosted at Parktown Girls), Turbine Art Fair and LATITUDES Art Fair. The collaboration built on the relationship Mokoena established as an intern at David Krut Projects (DKP) in 2016.
In 2019, he was commissioned among four other artists to do a multi-colour silkscreen print for LATITUDES Art Fair as part of their VIP Package. The resulting print ¾ Progress on the Edge of Play was completed in collaboration with silkscreen expert printer Roxy Kaczmarek from DKW and displayed prominently at LATITUDES.
Solo Exhibitions
2020 – Internal Probes – David Krut Projects, Johannesburg
2018 - Inside Jobs - Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2017 - The Pebofatso Experience - Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 – ARCOLisboa – First Floor Gallery - Harare
2019 - Songs of Sankofa - First Floor Gallery - Harare
2018 - Open Studio - Nazdik Precinct - Tehran, Iran
2018 - ArtNext Art Fair - Hong Kong
2017 - Disclosure - SMAC gallery Johannesburg
2017 - Atomic Peace - Bag Factory Johannesburg
2016 - POST-ITS - Constitutional Hill Johannesburg
2016 - Between South Africa and Iran - NoMans Gallery - Tehran
2016 - Beasts of No Nation - Hazard Gallery - Johannesburg
2015 - 30|30 - Springs Art Gallery - Johannesburg
2014 - South African Voices: A New Generation of Print makers - Washington DC
2014 - Shared Inheritance - The Cosmopolitan Johannesburg
2013 - Diptych: presented by Assemblage - Johannesburg
2013 - 2014 Fortunes Remixed - Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg, Cape Town
Selected Residencies
2019 - First Sol o residency - First Floor Gallery - Zimbabwe
2018 - artist-in-residence - Bag Factory - Johannesburg
2018 - Artist-in- Residence - KOOSHK Tehran - Iran
2017 - Artist-in- Residence - Nirox Foundation
Awards
2019 - Emergi ng Pai nters Competi ti on Fi nali st
2019 - JP Mor gan/ Arts and Cul t ur e Tr ust Abadali Arti sts’ co-creati on programme
2015 - Assemblage/African Arts Trust Studio Bursary
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