Vumelani Sibeko is performing November 28 at noon, starting from his gallery in Harlem: Tikhonova & Wintner, 40 West 120 Street, New York.
About:
Vumelani Sibeko was born in Emndeni Soweto in 1975. Sibeko studied at Vaal Triangle Technikon (now Vaal University of Technology) between 1997 and 1999. At the Technikon, he became exposed to racial differences. He says that, “it was more of a political class than anything else. You were constantly reminded that you were black.” At an early age, Sibeko recalls his mother’s support for his drawing on white paper, until he began drawing on his school clothes. He made a business with his art at an early age, drawing for fellow classmates in biology class.
Book Club, 2014.
Until February 2012, he used the surname Buthelezi, a surname his father adopted from a family he boarded with after escaping life as a farm laborer in search of a better life in Johannesburg. Vumelani has participated in several exhibitions at Yebo in Swaziland, who he is now officially represented by.
Paint the Bridge, 2014.
He is currently living and working in New York City. As an artist, he is an activist whose art and performance has brought attention to the issues of HIV/AIDS and women’s abuse, as well as the recent xenophobic assaults on foreigners in his home country.
