Mongezi Ncaphayi (1983)
Untitled, 2016.
Working intuitively with the repetition of form and colour, Mongezi Ncaphayi creates intricate works by combining paint and printmaking techniques. Ncaphayi’s practice is process-driven, his approach of working underpinned by the arrangement of pattern, line and shape that echoes the tempo and rhythm of Jazz compositions. Engaging with the evocative interrelation between colours and forms, Ncaphayi has developed his own abstract visual vocabulary, through the use of gestural marks to map out the intricate webs and designs that epitomise his work.
Untitled, 2016.
About:
Mongezi Ncaphayi was born in 1983 in Benoni on the East Rand, South Africa and currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. Following the completion of a Diploma in Art & Design at the Ekurhuleni East College-Benoni and a Professional Printmaking course at the Artist Proof Studio, Ncaphayi obtained a Certificate in Advanced Studies from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, U.S.A.
Untitled, 2016.
Overture-Communion, 2015.
Ncaphayi received the Ampersand Foundation Fellowship in 2011 and in 2013 he received the Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award, taking up residency at the Cite Internationale Des Arts in Paris. He has participated in a number of international group exhibitions and public art projects including: South African Voices at the Washington Printmakers Gallery in the U.S.A in 2014; Alternative Spaces at Plateforme On Time, in Paris, France in 2013 and Trans-Atlantic Fun-O-Pack: Print Exchange at the Edinburg School of Arts in Edinburg, Scotland in 2012. In 2015, Ncaphayi’s work was included in Back To The Future II. Abstract Art in South Africa: Past and Present at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch.
Most recently, Ncaphayi presented his first solo exhibition as the 2013 ABSA L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award winner, which showed from 7 – 26 February 2016 at the Absa Art Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa.