Collen Maswanganyi
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Collen Maswanganyi was born in 1977 in Noblehoek, near Giyani, in Limpopo. He began school at Haala Primary in 1983, matriculating from Ndegeza High School in 1995. His early education in art stems from his familial legacy,having been raised in an artistic family. He learnt to carve through his father, Johannes Maswanganyi, a well-known sculptor (in turn taught by his uncle, Piet Maswanganyi), while his mother, Mphemphu Maswanganyi is a talented bead maker. Between 1997 and 1999, Collen studied Fine Art at Technikon Witwatersrand. Like his father, he works with wood and paints most of his sculptures. Sometimes he makes life-size or larger-than- life works. ‘My art is about the old and new. I look at life generally where I make sculptures dressed in African tradition and modern fashion. I look at technological development.
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1 – 30 September 2022
In 2021, the Claire and Edoardo Villa Will Trust granted the Edoardo Villa Extraordinary Award for Sculpture to Jackson Hlungwani, the first of its kind to be awarded to an artist posthumously in acknowledgement of Hlungwani’s significant contribution to South African sculpture.
In addition to the production of a publication on Hlungwani’s work, the award intended to honour the memory of Hlungwani and further the woodcarving tradition by making provision for another sculptor, Collen Maswanganyi, to develop his practice through a four-week residency at NIROX. As part of this award, Maswanganyi proposed a workshop titled Carving X, during which he collaborated with fellow sculptors Richard Chauke, Amorous Maswanganyi, and Ben Tuge. The workshop began on Monday 5 September and ran until 2 October.
During this time, the artists worked together to produce two large-scale works (The Presence of God and Mabyongo / Pfungwa) as well as a series of smaller independent works from a large fallen Oak at NIROX. Many conversations were had during this period. Some focused on the process of carving itself, exploring the different types of wood used, the finish, or the idiosyncrasies involved in, say, painting in acrylic or enamel, or not at all, letting the wood show through. Other conversations focused on the role of writing, the place of artist statements, the context of exhibition, and how to go about pricing and marketing one’s work. This aspect of the workshop led to the collective decision that, while the Centre would take no commission, Carving X should be a selling exhibition, with the Centre enabling communication between the artists and potential buyers.
Showcased alongside pre-existing works, the exhibition explores the role of collaboration, grappling with questions of authorship, individual and collective identity, and the role of community in the making process, while foregrounding a variety of material choices and techniques, from the Maswanganyis’ painted matt, smoothly-sanded figures to the polished, enamel figures of Richard Chauke, and Tuge’s burnt, chisel-finished works in Jacaranda and Oak.
