Works
Abongile Sidzumo (1996) was born in Cape Town, where he currently works. He received a BA Fine Art from the Michaelis school of Fine Arts in 2019. In 2020 Sidzumo recieved the Blesssing Ngobeni Art Prize, which afforded him a solo exhibition at Everard Read Gallery in Johannesburg. In the same year, he was the runner-up for the Cassier Welz Awards hosted by the Bag factory Artist’s Studios in collaboration with Strauss & Co. In 2021, Sidzumo received the Gerald Sekoto Award in the Absa L’Atelier Awards. The award won him a three- month residency at Cite International des Arts,in Paris, France. In 2023 Sidzumo had his second solo show at Absa Gallery in Johannesburg, which also travelled to Gqeberha, Bloemfontein and Pretoria. in the same year he was the artist in residence at KNKK. He is the 2025 3rd prize winner of the Tilga Art Prize. ARTIST
“Sidzumo is a visual artist that works with leather and repurposed materials to create work that draws on personal memory and lived experiences, connecting these to specific places and the everyday realities of black communities. My works explore themes of land, culture, belonging and displacement of people. Sidzumo is influenced by his observation of people’s lifestyles and different moments of life, like expression of love, and the importance of family and community. T he proccess of stitching leather is is linked to histories of trauma inflicted on black people during Apartheid. His practise also functions as a manner of interrogating the continuous healing of black poeple in post Aparthied South Africa. Cattle have always been significant in the lives of rural South Africans culturally, and materially. Leather as one of the many commodities and culturally significant items produced from cows, is often associated with luxury and expensive fashion brands. Repurposing and recycling leather offcuts extends the use of this precious commodity that requires the secrifice of a cow. Through his process of restitching and weaving the leather, Sidzumo proposes that we start thinking about leather’s conceptual and material value in a different way.”