Sam Kentridge

Sam Kentridge (born 1992) is a Johannesburg based artist whose practice centres around words. He is interested in fragmented text, unintentionally funny phrases, and collage as a way of encountering a world that refuses to cohere.

While studying Film and English at the University of Cape Town (2012-2015), Sam developed a passion for playing with narrative and language, making some cringey short films that are safely hidden somewhere in a folder within a folder within a folder on a hard drive that he currently does not know the location of.

During this time he was drawn to second hand book stores and began collecting odd pedagogical texts (with titles such as 'Yoga for Business Executives’, ‘The American Way of Death’, and ‘The Rubbing Eases Pain Book’). He developed a process of cutting out phrases and images from these texts and glueing them back together in new and angsty ways.

After drinking too many energy drinks on the sets of student films and developing a bad case of cognitive vertigo from the lofty language of literary analysis, Sam pursued a career in education. Working as a high school English and History teacher (2017-2021) deepened his fascination and frustration with the way in which history is narrated and the scary power language has in constructing our worlds.

In 2022 Sam left teaching to pursue the twin practices of making art and managing his anxiety (which at times can feel like contradictory goals). He has participated in group shows with the Johannesburg based gallery, the gallery, and had works on display at the Turbine Art Fair in 2022, and the Latitudes Art Fair in 2023.

He is interested in exploring themes including loneliness, hope, middle class ennui, and the pain of biting the inside of your cheek so that the inside of your cheek becomes slightly swollen and then you bite that same spot only moments later and now your ham and cheese sandwich tastes of blood.