Dineo Seshee Bopape was born in the year of the golden rooster, 1981 (1974 in the Ethiopian calendar), on a Sunday. If she were Ghanaian, her name would be akosua/akos for short. During the same year of her birth, there were perhaps 22 recorded Atlantic Ocean hurricanes and 4 Indian Ocean cyclones close to Mozambique. The Brixton riots took place; the song “endless love” is popular on the airwaves; Umkhonto We Sizwe performs numerous underground assaults against the apartheid state. The Boeing 767 makes its first air flight; Zaire is the premier producer of the world’s cobalt; Winnie Mandela’s banishment orders are renewed for another 5 years. In Chile, the Water Code is established, separating water ownership from land ownership; two people were injured when a bomb exploded in a Durban shopping centre; Bobby Sands dies. There was an earthquake that killed maybe 50 people in China; an International NGO Conference on Indigenous Populations and the Land is held in Geneva; the name “internet” is mentioned for the first time; there is a coup d’etat in Ghana; princess Diana of Britain marries Charles; Bob Marley dies; an annular solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean. Apartheid SA invades Angola; AIDS is identified/created/named; Isabelle Allende begins to write “The house of the spirits”; Greece is struck by three earthquakes over a period of 11 days; the Slave trade is officially abolished in Mauritania; the remains of the Titanic are found; Muhammad Ali retires; USA and Japan are in the leading position in the seabed-mining industry; the 15th IVF baby is born; Thomas Sankara rides a bike to his first cabinet meeting; Machu Picchu is declared a heritage site; a series of apparitions of The Virgin Mary commence to a group of school girls in Rwanda; also similarly, in Yugoslavia. New Zealand recognised 16 rivers and lakes as “outstanding” and protected them in perpetuity. Her paternal grandmother dies affected by dementia; MTV is launched; it is said that right whales born in that year, are taller than right whales born since. Other concurrent events of the year of her birth, and of her lifetime, are perhaps too many to fully know. Some things continued, some transformed, some shifted, others ended(?), some began… The world’s human population was then apparently at around 4.529 billion... today she (Bopape) is one amongst 7 billion - occupying multiple adjectives.
Dineo Seshee Bopape’s artistic process engages with the matter of self-sovereignty, “exploring the metaphysics of ‘self-presence’ (the sense of being present to one’s self) and matter (in the literal, alchemical and symbolic sense) often surveying the wounds of the personal and collective body; this at times through the historical contexts backdrop of colonialisms, imperialism, and slavery” 1. Informed by Afro-diasporic spiritual aesthetics, she interweaves these themes through her large-scale, immersive installations that often encompass storytelling, sculpture, drawing, video, and sound.
Bopape has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Her most recent solo exhibitions include (ka) pheko ye – Wo der Traum beginnt, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2024); Master Harmoniser (Ile, aya, moya, la, ndokh) at blank projects, Cape Town (2023); Lerato laka le a phela le a phela le a phela/My love is alive, is alive, is alive for the Elaine Dannheisser Projects Series at MoMA in New York, USA (2023); Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo] at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, Italy (2022); The Soul Expanding Ocean #3 at Ocean Space in Venice, Italy (2022); Lerato le le golo (...la go hloka bo kantle) at Secession Vienna in Austria (2022); The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU) in Richmond, USA (2021); Sedibeng, it comes with the rain at Towner Art Galler in Eastbourne, UK (2019); and When Spirituality was a Baby at Collective Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland (2018).
Recent group exhibitions include those at the Pinault Collection Palazzo Grassi, Venice and Bourse de Commerce, Paris; PalaisPopulaire in Berlin; Helsinki Biennial, Finland; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany; National Museum of Cardiff, Wales; FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Anglouême, France; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; SFMOMA, San Francisco; Arsenale, Venice Biennale, Italy; Ford Foundation Gallery, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada; 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Germany; Sharjah Biennale 13: Tamawuj, UAE, among others.
Bopape was a joint recipient of the Artes Mundi 9 Prize at the National Museum Cardiff in 2021 and was the main prize winner of the Future Generation Art Prize as well as the Sharjah Biennale Prize (both 2017). In 2010 she was the recipient of a Columbia University Toby Fund Award, and was the winner of the 2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award.
1 The artist in conversation
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curriculum vitae
1981 Born in Polokwane, South Africa
education
2008 - 2010 MFA School Of The Arts, Columbia University, New York, USA
2005 Arts and Culture Management Learnership, Durban South Africa
2004 Bachelors Technology Degree in Fine Arts, Durban of Institute of Technology, South Africa
2003 National Diploma in Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, South Africa
solo exhibitions
2024 (ka) pheko ye – Wo der Traum beginnt, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
2023 Master Harmoniser (Ile aya, moya, la, ndokh), blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2023 Projects: Dineo Seshee Bopape, The Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Lobby, MoMA, New York, USA
2023 (ka) pheko ye – the dream to come, Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland
2022 Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo], Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy
2022 The Soul Expanding Ocean #3, Ocean Space, Venice, Italy
2022 Lerato le le golo (...la go hloka bo kantle), secession Vienna, Austria
2022 Ile aye, moya, l., ndokh…harmonic conversions…mm, The Institute for Contemporary Art at Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), Richmond, Virginia, USA
2020 New, Site-Responsive Commissions, The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), Richmond, Virginia, USA
2019 Dineo Seshee Bopape: Sedibeng, it comes with the rain, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, United Kingdom
2018 When Spirituality was a Baby, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2018 Lerole: footnotes. (The struggle of memory against forgetting), Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany
2018 Solo Exhibition: Main Prize winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, PinchukArtCentre Kiev, Ukraine
2017 Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting), Witte de With Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2017 sa kosa ke lerole, The Gallery in the Round, National Arts Festival Grahamstown, Grahamstown, South Africa
2017 and- in. the light of this. _____, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
2017 222, PHURULLOGA, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Germany
2016 sa ______ ke lerole, (sa lerole ke ___ ), Art in General, New York, USA
2016 Untitled [of occult instability] (feelings) Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2015 Slow-co-ruption, Hayward Gallery Project space, London, United Kingdom
2015 we need the memories of all our members, Hordeland Kunst Sentrum, Bergen, Norway
2014 This is What You Will Look Like When You Die/After Ana Mandieta, August House, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 Kgoro ya go tswa: even if you fall from a circle, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 lesobana!! lesobana! lesobana!! (le bulegile); lesobana! lesobana! lesobana!! (go phunyegile), Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Long Live the Immaterial...Effect no.55, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2010 the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 I like to remember things my own way, Annarumma 404, Napoli, Italy
2008 Love Strung, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2008 It’s a Celebration Bitches!!!, Thami Mnyele Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 Non in Mind (fictions unending) dream weaver and other stories, Rotterdam Art Fair – represented by Mart House Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2007 Non in Mind (fictions unending) dreamweaver and other stories, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Keep it to Yourself, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
group exhibitions
2024 Precarious Joys, Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada
2024 In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
2024 Things take time, time takes things, POOL, Cape Town, South Africa
2023 AVANT L'ORAGE, Pinault Collection Bourse de Commerce, Paris, France
2023 Thick as Mud, Henry Art Gallery; University of Washington, Seattle, USA
2023 Cinema for All Pavilion, Thailand Biennale, Thailand
2023 ICÔNES, Pinault Collection Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
2023 Helsinki Biennial, Helsinki, Finland
2023 The Struggle of Memory – Deutsche Bank Collection, PalaisPopulaire Berlin, Germany
2022 HDTS 2022: The Searchers, Joshua Tree, Southern California, USA
2022 15th Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach: The Vibration of Things, Fellbach, Germany
2022 23rd Biennale of Sydney - Rīvus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2022 Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo
2022 Back to Earth, Kensington Gardens, The Magazine Café and Serpentine North Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2021 “Everyone Is an Artist” Cosmopolitical Exercises with Joseph Beuys, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
2021 Artes Mundi 9, National Museum of Cardiff, Wales
2021 How to Make a Country, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Anglouême, France
2019 SOFT POWER, SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA
2019 Co-representing South Africa: The Stronger We Become, Arsenale, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2019 Perilous Bodies, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, USA
2018 BELIEVE, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada
2018 57th October Salon: The Marvellous Cacophony, Belgrade, Serbia
2018 We Don’t Need Another Hero, 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2017 Future Generation Art Prize, Venice, Italy
2017 Conundrum of Imagination, Exhibition as part of the Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, Austria
2017 Sharjah Biennale 13: Tamawuj, Sharjah, UAE
2017 Exhibition of shortlisted artists: Future Generation Art Prize 17, Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine
2017 Blind Date, Sfeir Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2016 Not New Now, Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco
2016 Incerteza Viva (Live Uncertainty), Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2016 Le Grand Balcon (The Grand Balcony), Montreal Biennale, Montreal, Canada
2016 Apeirophobia/Aporia, Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA
2016 Neriri Kiruru Harara, SEMA - Media City Seoul 2016, Seoul, South Korea
2016 What We Have Overlooked, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 Spirit Robot, Chale Wote 2016, Accra, Ghana, West Africa
2015 The Film Will Always Be With You: South African Artists On Screen, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2015 Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa, The Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado, USA
2015 diagno: tocolo, M1, Hohenlockstedt, Germany
2015 Avant Noir, ICA, London, United Kingdom
2014 Spring/Break, Old School, New York, USA
2014 Ruffneck Constructivists, ICA, Philadelphia, USA
2014 Lightning Speed of the Present, 808 gallery, Boston University, Boston, USA
2014 Soundscape/dispoem, Tropen Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2014 Critically Queer, Africa Center for Humanities, University of Cape Town, South Africa
2014 Stalactica, Galerie de l‘Ancienne Quincaillerie Vander Eycken, Brussels, Belgium
2014 Nuit Blanche 2014, Toronto, Canada
2014 The Danjuma Collection: One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure), 33 Fitzroy Square, London, United Kingdom
2013 12th Biennale de Lyon: Meanwhile...Suddenly, And Then..., Lyon, France
2013 The Beautyful Ones, Nolan-Judin gallery, Berlin, Germany
2013 My Joburg, Maison Rouge, Paris, France and Dresden, Germany
2013 !KAURU SADC Visual Arts Exhibition: Cultural Brokerage: Africa imagined (Act 1), Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
2013 Critically Queer, FADA gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 The African Time Machine Video Festival Tilburg, Lowave, Netherlands
2013 A Sculptural Premise, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 Things and People, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland
2013 Suspicious Mind: Artists’ exploration of mind and matter, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 Digitale Afrique (Digital Africa), La Bastide St Joseph, Marseilles, France
2013 Place of Blackness: Screening and booklaunch with Andile Mngxitama, Poppy’s Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 Group Sex Positive: Couchsurfers and a-boys, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012 Progress of Love, The Menil Collection, Houston, USA
2012 Mannered Attitude, Soloway, New York, USA
2012 Fantasy, Exhibition Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
2012 De Menocchio, nous savons beaucoup de choses, Betonsalon, Paris, France
2012 Circled the Man, Heliopolis Gallery, New York
2012 Fiction is fiction, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 The New Church No 1, The New Church, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 With or Without, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 Geography of Somewhere, Brodie-Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 Cabaret, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, USA
2011 Billy Monk/Dineo Bopape, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 Alterating Conditions: Performing Performance Art in South Africa, Bag Factory, Johanesburg, South Africa
2011 Don’t Panic, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2010 Siren, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, USA
2010 On Morality Act IV: The Ideal Performance, Witte De With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2010 Derangement, CCS Bard, New York, USA
2010 Pseudonym Project, New York, USA
2010 Us/we, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Pass Ages, Johannesburg old pass offices, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010 Video Studio, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA
2010 Skin, 6-8 Months, New York, USA
2010 Spectral Lines, Bendana Pinel Contemporain, Paris, France
2010 Bopape Dumas Muholi, MMKA, Arnhem, Netherlands
2009 A Life Less Ordinary: Performance and Display In Contemporary South African Art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
2009 Distopia, Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa - travelling show
2009 Brick + Mortar Video Art Festival, Greenfields, Massachusetts, USA
2009 REBELLE: Art and Feminism 1969-2009, Moderne Kunst Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, Netherlands
2009 April Meetings Festivals, Belgrade, Serbia
2009 The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, The New Museum, New York, USA
2009 Multipistes, Meneer De Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2009 The Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 Postcards Beyond the Edge, Guth Garfa International Documentary Film Festival, Donegal, Ireland
2009 Under Construction 1, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 The Performance Has Been Deffered at Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA
2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award 2008, University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 Scratching the surface Vol.1, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Selection from Scratching the Surface Vol.1, L’apartment 22, Rabat, Morroco
2008 Disguise: The Art of Attracting and Deflating Attention, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Cutting the Cake, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 In Transition Russia 2008, various locations in Moscow, Russia
2008 Zam Magazine Launch Show, Meneer De Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 ZA: Young Art from South Africa, Pallazo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
2007 Cape 07, Various sites, Cape Town, South Africa
2007 Off-Spring, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007 To a New Common Place, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 New Painting: a Selection of Contemporary South African Painting, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2006 Shared History/Decolonizing the Image, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 De Grote Oversteek, Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, Zwolle, Netherlands
2006 Rotterdam Film Festival: Hotspots Johannesburg: Post Whites Only...Off-Corso, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006 Duo Show: Dineo Bopape and Thulani Shongwe, Gallery 23, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Urban Two Thousand and Five: Five Urban Women’s Stories, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa
2005 In the Making: Material and Process, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2005 Orientations and Illusions, for prog: ME, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005 Paperworks, Art on Paper Exhibition, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2005 Red Eye-Rouge, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 Tangencya, 2004/5, Durban, South Africa
2004 Women’s Day - Imvubelo 2004, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 Rejected - Abangafuneki, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 We Are Here: Interactive women’s workshop and exhibition, BAT Center, Durban, South Africa
2004 Crimes of Passion, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003 BAT Center Christmas Show, Bat Center gallery, Durban, South Africa
2003 Samp and Beans, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003 My Life as a Reflection of Other Women’s Lives in South Africa, Women’s Day Exhibition, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2003 ‘THWASA- a 3rd Eye Initiative (invited artist), KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
awards
2021 Artes Mundi 9 Prize, National Museum Cardiff, Wales
2017 Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Foundation, Kiev, Ukraine (winner)
2017 Sharjah Biennale Prize, UAE
2017 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, South Africa
2010 Columbia University Toby Fund Award, New York, USA
2008 Brevoort-Eickemeyer Fellowship and Prize, Columbia University, New York, USA
2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award, South Africa
residencies
2021 Alligator Head foundation/TBA Foundation, Jamaica
2021 Cite International des Arts + Art Explora, Paris, France
2019 TBA “The Current II” , Solomon Islands
2015 Hospitalfield, Scotland, UK
2013 Nirox, South Africa
2012 Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
2012 Wild Bush Residency – in the wilderness of Canada
2011 Headlands Center for the Arts, California, USA
2011 Fountainhead Residency, Miami, USA
2011 Sober & Lonely, Johannesburg, ZA
2011 Sommer Akademie, Zentrum Paul Klee, Switzerland
2008 Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam
2005 De Ateliers, Amsterdam
—
curriculum vitae
1981 Born in Polokwane, South Africa
education
2008 - 2010 MFA School Of The Arts, Columbia University, New York, USA
2005 Arts and Culture Management Learnership, Durban South Africa
2004 Bachelors Technology Degree in Fine Arts, Durban of Institute of Technology, South Africa
2003 National Diploma in Fine Arts, Durban University of Technology, South Africa
solo exhibitions
2024 (ka) pheko ye – Wo der Traum beginnt, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland
2023 Master Harmoniser (Ile aya, moya, la, ndokh), blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2023 Projects: Dineo Seshee Bopape, The Samuel and Ronnie Heyman Lobby, MoMA, New York, USA
2023 (ka) pheko ye – the dream to come, Museum of Contemporary Art KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland
2022 Born in the first light of the morning [moswara’marapo], Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy
2022 The Soul Expanding Ocean #3, Ocean Space, Venice, Italy
2022 Lerato le le golo (...la go hloka bo kantle), secession Vienna, Austria
2022 Ile aye, moya, l., ndokh…harmonic conversions…mm, The Institute for Contemporary Art at Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), Richmond, Virginia, USA
2020 New, Site-Responsive Commissions, The Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University (ICA at VCU), Richmond, Virginia, USA
2019 Dineo Seshee Bopape: Sedibeng, it comes with the rain, Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, United Kingdom
2018 When Spirituality was a Baby, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
2018 Lerole: footnotes. (The struggle of memory against forgetting), Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg, Germany
2018 Solo Exhibition: Main Prize winner of the Future Generation Art Prize 2017, PinchukArtCentre Kiev, Ukraine
2017 Lerole: footnotes (The struggle of memory against forgetting), Witte de With Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2017 sa kosa ke lerole, The Gallery in the Round, National Arts Festival Grahamstown, Grahamstown, South Africa
2017 and- in. the light of this. _____, Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
2017 222, PHURULLOGA, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Germany
2016 sa ______ ke lerole, (sa lerole ke ___ ), Art in General, New York, USA
2016 Untitled [of occult instability] (feelings) Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2015 Slow-co-ruption, Hayward Gallery Project space, London, United Kingdom
2015 we need the memories of all our members, Hordeland Kunst Sentrum, Bergen, Norway
2014 This is What You Will Look Like When You Die/After Ana Mandieta, August House, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 Kgoro ya go tswa: even if you fall from a circle, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 lesobana!! lesobana! lesobana!! (le bulegile); lesobana! lesobana! lesobana!! (go phunyegile), Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Long Live the Immaterial...Effect no.55, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2010 the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 I like to remember things my own way, Annarumma 404, Napoli, Italy
2008 Love Strung, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2008 It’s a Celebration Bitches!!!, Thami Mnyele Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 Non in Mind (fictions unending) dream weaver and other stories, Rotterdam Art Fair – represented by Mart House Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2007 Non in Mind (fictions unending) dreamweaver and other stories, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Keep it to Yourself, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
group exhibitions
2024 Precarious Joys, Toronto Biennial of Art, Toronto, Canada
2024 In and Out of Place. Land after Information 1992–2024, Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
2024 Things take time, time takes things, POOL, Cape Town, South Africa
2023 AVANT L'ORAGE, Pinault Collection Bourse de Commerce, Paris, France
2023 Thick as Mud, Henry Art Gallery; University of Washington, Seattle, USA
2023 Cinema for All Pavilion, Thailand Biennale, Thailand
2023 ICÔNES, Pinault Collection Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
2023 Helsinki Biennial, Helsinki, Finland
2023 The Struggle of Memory – Deutsche Bank Collection, PalaisPopulaire Berlin, Germany
2022 HDTS 2022: The Searchers, Joshua Tree, Southern California, USA
2022 15th Triennial of Small Sculpture Fellbach: The Vibration of Things, Fellbach, Germany
2022 23rd Biennale of Sydney - Rīvus, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2022 Manifesta 14, Prishtina, Kosovo
2022 Back to Earth, Kensington Gardens, The Magazine Café and Serpentine North Gallery, London, United Kingdom
2021 “Everyone Is an Artist” Cosmopolitical Exercises with Joseph Beuys, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany
2021 Artes Mundi 9, National Museum of Cardiff, Wales
2021 How to Make a Country, FRAC Poitou-Charentes, Anglouême, France
2019 SOFT POWER, SFMOMA, San Francisco, USA
2019 Co-representing South Africa: The Stronger We Become, Arsenale, Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
2019 Perilous Bodies, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, USA
2018 BELIEVE, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada
2018 57th October Salon: The Marvellous Cacophony, Belgrade, Serbia
2018 We Don’t Need Another Hero, 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
2017 Future Generation Art Prize, Venice, Italy
2017 Conundrum of Imagination, Exhibition as part of the Wiener Festwochen, Vienna, Austria
2017 Sharjah Biennale 13: Tamawuj, Sharjah, UAE
2017 Exhibition of shortlisted artists: Future Generation Art Prize 17, Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev, Ukraine
2017 Blind Date, Sfeir Semler Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2016 Not New Now, Marrakech Biennale, Marrakech, Morocco
2016 Incerteza Viva (Live Uncertainty), Sao Paulo Biennale, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2016 Le Grand Balcon (The Grand Balcony), Montreal Biennale, Montreal, Canada
2016 Apeirophobia/Aporia, Human Resources, Los Angeles, USA
2016 Neriri Kiruru Harara, SEMA - Media City Seoul 2016, Seoul, South Korea
2016 What We Have Overlooked, Framer Framed, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2016 Spirit Robot, Chale Wote 2016, Accra, Ghana, West Africa
2015 The Film Will Always Be With You: South African Artists On Screen, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
2015 Spatial Stories: Topographies of Change in Africa, The Center for Visual Art, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Colorado, USA
2015 diagno: tocolo, M1, Hohenlockstedt, Germany
2015 Avant Noir, ICA, London, United Kingdom
2014 Spring/Break, Old School, New York, USA
2014 Ruffneck Constructivists, ICA, Philadelphia, USA
2014 Lightning Speed of the Present, 808 gallery, Boston University, Boston, USA
2014 Soundscape/dispoem, Tropen Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2014 Critically Queer, Africa Center for Humanities, University of Cape Town, South Africa
2014 Stalactica, Galerie de l‘Ancienne Quincaillerie Vander Eycken, Brussels, Belgium
2014 Nuit Blanche 2014, Toronto, Canada
2014 The Danjuma Collection: One Man’s Trash (Is Another Man’s Treasure), 33 Fitzroy Square, London, United Kingdom
2013 12th Biennale de Lyon: Meanwhile...Suddenly, And Then..., Lyon, France
2013 The Beautyful Ones, Nolan-Judin gallery, Berlin, Germany
2013 My Joburg, Maison Rouge, Paris, France and Dresden, Germany
2013 !KAURU SADC Visual Arts Exhibition: Cultural Brokerage: Africa imagined (Act 1), Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
2013 Critically Queer, FADA gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 The African Time Machine Video Festival Tilburg, Lowave, Netherlands
2013 A Sculptural Premise, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 Things and People, Galeria Arsenal, Bialystok, Poland
2013 Suspicious Mind: Artists’ exploration of mind and matter, Michaelis Gallery, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
2013 Digitale Afrique (Digital Africa), La Bastide St Joseph, Marseilles, France
2013 Place of Blackness: Screening and booklaunch with Andile Mngxitama, Poppy’s Melville, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013 Group Sex Positive: Couchsurfers and a-boys, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012 Progress of Love, The Menil Collection, Houston, USA
2012 Mannered Attitude, Soloway, New York, USA
2012 Fantasy, Exhibition Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
2012 De Menocchio, nous savons beaucoup de choses, Betonsalon, Paris, France
2012 Circled the Man, Heliopolis Gallery, New York
2012 Fiction is fiction, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2012 The New Church No 1, The New Church, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 With or Without, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2011 Geography of Somewhere, Brodie-Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 Cabaret, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, USA
2011 Billy Monk/Dineo Bopape, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011 Alterating Conditions: Performing Performance Art in South Africa, Bag Factory, Johanesburg, South Africa
2011 Don’t Panic, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2010 Siren, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, USA
2010 On Morality Act IV: The Ideal Performance, Witte De With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2010 Derangement, CCS Bard, New York, USA
2010 Pseudonym Project, New York, USA
2010 Us/we, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2010 Pass Ages, Johannesburg old pass offices, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010 Video Studio, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, USA
2010 Skin, 6-8 Months, New York, USA
2010 Spectral Lines, Bendana Pinel Contemporain, Paris, France
2010 Bopape Dumas Muholi, MMKA, Arnhem, Netherlands
2009 A Life Less Ordinary: Performance and Display In Contemporary South African Art, Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham University, Nottingham, UK
2009 Distopia, Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa - travelling show
2009 Brick + Mortar Video Art Festival, Greenfields, Massachusetts, USA
2009 REBELLE: Art and Feminism 1969-2009, Moderne Kunst Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, Netherlands
2009 April Meetings Festivals, Belgrade, Serbia
2009 The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, The New Museum, New York, USA
2009 Multipistes, Meneer De Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2009 The Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 Postcards Beyond the Edge, Guth Garfa International Documentary Film Festival, Donegal, Ireland
2009 Under Construction 1, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 The Performance Has Been Deffered at Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Massachusetts, USA
2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award 2008, University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 Scratching the surface Vol.1, Association for Visual Arts Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Selection from Scratching the Surface Vol.1, L’apartment 22, Rabat, Morroco
2008 Disguise: The Art of Attracting and Deflating Attention, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008 Cutting the Cake, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 In Transition Russia 2008, various locations in Moscow, Russia
2008 Zam Magazine Launch Show, Meneer De Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008 ZA: Young Art from South Africa, Pallazo delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
2007 Cape 07, Various sites, Cape Town, South Africa
2007 Off-Spring, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007 To a New Common Place, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 New Painting: a Selection of Contemporary South African Painting, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2006 Shared History/Decolonizing the Image, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006 De Grote Oversteek, Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, Zwolle, Netherlands
2006 Rotterdam Film Festival: Hotspots Johannesburg: Post Whites Only...Off-Corso, Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006 Duo Show: Dineo Bopape and Thulani Shongwe, Gallery 23, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Urban Two Thousand and Five: Five Urban Women’s Stories, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa
2005 In the Making: Material and Process, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2005 Orientations and Illusions, for prog: ME, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005 Paperworks, Art on Paper Exhibition, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2005 Red Eye-Rouge, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 Tangencya, 2004/5, Durban, South Africa
2004 Women’s Day - Imvubelo 2004, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 Rejected - Abangafuneki, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004 We Are Here: Interactive women’s workshop and exhibition, BAT Center, Durban, South Africa
2004 Crimes of Passion, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003 BAT Center Christmas Show, Bat Center gallery, Durban, South Africa
2003 Samp and Beans, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003 My Life as a Reflection of Other Women’s Lives in South Africa, Women’s Day Exhibition, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2003 ‘THWASA- a 3rd Eye Initiative (invited artist), KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
awards
2021 Artes Mundi 9 Prize, National Museum Cardiff, Wales
2017 Future Generation Art Prize, Pinchuk Art Foundation, Kiev, Ukraine (winner)
2017 Sharjah Biennale Prize, UAE
2017 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, South Africa
2010 Columbia University Toby Fund Award, New York, USA
2008 Brevoort-Eickemeyer Fellowship and Prize, Columbia University, New York, USA
2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award, South Africa
residencies
2021 Alligator Head foundation/TBA Foundation, Jamaica
2021 Cite International des Arts + Art Explora, Paris, France
2019 TBA “The Current II” , Solomon Islands
2015 Hospitalfield, Scotland, UK
2013 Nirox, South Africa
2012 Darling Foundry, Montreal, Canada
2012 Wild Bush Residency – in the wilderness of Canada
2011 Headlands Center for the Arts, California, USA
2011 Fountainhead Residency, Miami, USA
2011 Sober & Lonely, Johannesburg, ZA
2011 Sommer Akademie, Zentrum Paul Klee, Switzerland
2008 Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam
2005 De Ateliers, Amsterdam
