Wallpaper 10

In April 2017, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris held

a party to open its summer-long programme dedicated

to African art. Meeting in Frank Gehry’s nautically

themed exhibition space, South African artists Kemang

Wa Lehulere and William Kentridge greeted each other

warmly. Actually, it was a bit more nuanced than this:

by any reckoning Kentridge is his country’s best-known

artistic export, but it was he who made eye contact,

strode across the unpeopled dance floor, and singled

out Wa Lehulere among a group of artists. It was a

small moment, but it felt like a baton was being passed.

Over the course of the past decade, Wa Lehulere,

a 34-year-old native of Cape Town, has emerged as a

defining figure in South African art. Wa Lehulere works

principally with drawing, sculpture and performance,

although this description fails to communicate the

fluid vitality and allusive urgency of his work. Prolific

both in his personal practice and as a collaborator,

Wa Lehulere first achieved prominence with

Gugulective, an artist-led collective he co-founded

in 2006. ‘I found my identity as a human being in

Gugulective,’ he says when I meet him at his busy

studio in Maitland (Tammi Glick’s exhibition space,

the Maitland Institute, is in the same development),

a suburb of Cape Town with a resolutely working-

class character. ‘The formation of who I am today

was grounded in that space.’

Wa Lehulere’s solo career properly took off when

he moved to Johannesburg in 2010 to study fine art.

Five years later he received the Standard Bank Young

Artist Award, a premier South African art prize won

by Kentridge in 1987. Last year he was awarded

Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year honour and won

the Malcolm McLaren Award at Performa 17 in New

York. He also co-curated an exhibition at new Cape

Town art space A4 Arts Foundation. His increasing

visibility culminated in a formal offer earlier this year

to join New York art dealer Marian Goodman’s stable

of artists. The gallery also represents Kentridge.

‘I didn’t think they were serious about working with

me,’ says Wa Lehulere, who had hoped to take a year

off. But Marian Goodman senior director Roger Tatley,

a long-time admirer, pushed to seal the deal. For his

forthcoming London show Wa Lehulere is presenting

mostly sculptural pieces made from salvaged school

desks. A large freestanding piece features defaced

desktops with cross motifs made from threaded

shoelaces. One smaller work involves a car tyre – a

charged symbol of resistance in townships – encased

in metal tubing. ‘The works are not as huge and

complex as my previous installations. I want to simplify

and distil ideas I have been thinking through,’ says (^) »
HISTORY
CHANNEL
South African artist Kemang Wa Lehulere pieces
together the past for a new show in London
PHOTOGRAPHY: RUDI GEYSER WRITER: SEAN O’TOOLE
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