Lwandiso Njara – God Engineering
Artist Biography
Lwandiso Njara (1987) was born in Libode, Eastern Cape Lwandiso. Njara holds a BTech (FA) from the Tshwane University of Technology. Njara’s work is in various private and corporate collections including Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC), Unisa and the Eduardo Villa Museum collections.
Artist Statement
Njara’s work is centered around the contradicts of his Catholic education in contrast with Xhosa ancestral rituals. Through his pieces, he explores an experience of identity construction, spiritual awakening and development during his boyhood years in rural Transkei. Njara’s work problematizes his negotiation between his Catholic education and his traditional upbringing. The artist treats these two polarities as binary opposites which he does not necessarily seek resolve, but use them to construct a new emergent identity. Not in any way suggesting that identities are singular and fixed, but they could possibly be perceived to be multifaceted and fragmented. He brings this investigations of his own identity in conversation with the human existence within technocratic social orders.
These post-colonial constructs of identity are explored through the use of large bronze/concrete sculptural works. Njara’s work is often unpolished and raw, exposing the internal workings of machines through tools, cogs and mechanisms. These relate to his need to deconstruct these binaries and consider each mechanisms contribution to his identity and reflect the hybrid contemporary African identity. Viewing the internal workings of these pieces also alludes to something more sinister, as he attempts to consider the use of religion in constructing a national identity.
Although Njara work conveys a personal investigation of his identity, this exploration can be applied to a collective conscious, where the diversity within South Africa is creating a hybrid third culture, and essential, separatist, understandings of identity are disappearing as our nation becomes trans-conscious.
Artist CV
Born in 1987, Libode, Eastern Cape.
Education
· B-tech in Fine Arts – Tshwane University of Technology.
· National Diploma – Tshwane University of Technology.
Exhibitions
2019
Contemporaneite Australe, At MECA, Bordeaux, France.
They Journeyed South, AFSACSA /SAFFCA Foundation, France.
In My Book of Transformation, Trent Art Gallery, Pretoria.
2018
Engineering the New Jerusalem – Trent art gallery, February 2018, Pretoria.
Engineering the New Jerusalem II – Lizamore & Associates, 2018, Johannesburg.
Engineering the New Jerusalem II – FynArts gallery, 2018, Hermanus.
FynArts Festival – Gearings Point, 2018, Hermanus.
2016
· Altar – Association of Arts Pretoria, June 2016
· A Place in Time – Nirox Winter Sculpture Show – Nirox Sculpture Park, Maropeng, May – July 2016.
· African Equations, group exhibition at Lizamore & Associates, Johannesburg
2014
· Nirox Winter Sculpture Show – Nirox Sculpture Park, Maropeng, May – July 2014.
2013
· Neo-Baroque – Fried Contemporary Gallery, Pretoria, 26 October – 23 November 2013.
· Multiple Identities with Gordon Froud – Trent Gallery, Pretoria, September 2013.
· Trans-Africa – Absa Art Gallery, Johannesburg.
· After the Rainbow Nation 2013 – Nirox Sculpture Park and Nirox Projects, Arts on Main, Johannesburg.
· Engage II World Art Day Exhibition – Pretoria Art Association, Pretoria, 15 April 2013 – 26 April 2013.
2012
· Pathways with Malose Pete – Pretoria Art Association, 15 June – 4 July 2012.
· Ode to Over-Consumerism: Rooftop IV – St Lorient Fashion & Art Gallery, Pretoria, 29 September – 18 November 2012.
· Group show with Diane Victor – Ron Belling Art Gallery, Port Elizabeth.
· Art South Africa contemporary art auction/group exhibition – Cape Town.
· Winners exhibition of the PPC Young Sculptor Competition at the Pretoria Art Association
2011
· Previous winners of PPC Cement (YCSA) Competition – Pretoria Art Association, 6 May – 25 May 2011.
· Exhibition with Joel Tsepho Sebothoma – Trent Art Gallery, Pretoria .
2010
· African Narrativ – St Lorient Fashion & Art Gallery, Pretoria.
· Essence of Perfume – St Lorient Fashion & Art Gallery, Pretoria..
Awards
· 2012 First Prize – Thami Mnyele Fine Arts Award
· 2012 Merit Award – Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) Young Sculptor Award Competition.
· 2009 Runner Up Prize – Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) Young Sculptor Award Competition.
Art Competition Judging and Selection Panels
· Adjudicator at the Thami Mnyele Fine Art Awards 2013.
Commissions
· Absa Cape Epic 2014 (bronze cast trophies).
Collections
· Private collections.
· Pretoria Portland Cement (PPC) Offices, Sandton Johannesburg.
· St. Lorient Fashion & Art gallery, Pretoria.
· The President’s Bryntirion Estate, Pretoria.
· Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria.
· Eduardo Villa Museum, The University of Pretoria, Pretoria.
· Fried Contemporary Art Gallery, Pretoria.
· University of Pretoria
· University of South Africa (UNISA)