Dineo Seshee Bopape

Dineo Seshee Bopape

b. 1981, Polokwane, South Africa
lives in Johannesburg

Before obtaining an MFA from Columbia University School of the Arts, New York, in 2010, Dineo Seshee Bopape first studied painting and sculpture in her native South Africa, then later graduated from De Ateliers, Amsterdam. Her large-scale, sometimes sprawling multimedia installations feature sound and video montages along with displays of found items and artifacts intermingled with natural substances, such as earth, clay, wood, and bricks. Bopape’s work explores the territorial nature of humans, the concept of land ownership, and the resulting historical record of culture, conflict, and environmental impact. Her installations are meditations on whether indigenous people will have a role in future iterations of their lands as they are marginalized by historical forces such as the legacy of colonialism. Bopape has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, and her work has been featured in exhibitions at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; Berlin Biennale; the South African Pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale (2019); and in a solo exhibition, Untitled (Of Occult Instability) [Feelings], Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2016), among others. In 2017, after winning the Future Generation Art Prize, her work was shown at the 57th Venice Biennale.

Dineo Seshee Bopape Untitled (Of Occult Instability) [Feelings], 2016–18 Installation view, 10. 10. Berlin Biennale, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin Courtesy Dineo Seshee Bopape; Jabu Arnell; Lachell Workman; Mo Laudi; Robert Rhee; Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg/Beirut, Photo: Timo Ohler