Available Works

About

Inga Somdyala is an interdisciplinary artist born in Komani, Eastern Cape, South Africa, living and working in Cape Town. In 2019, he completed a Master of Fine Art degree at the Michaelis School of Fine Art (University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa) and has since participated in various international art fairs and group exhibitions.

Somdyala’s practice explores personal aspects of the cultural, political and social negotiations of the post-apartheid generation. Working primarily through painting, print media and installation, his work is an evocative and tactile exploration of cultural identity within South African political history as it intersects with his lived experience.

In 2022, Somdyala was awarded the MTN New Contemporaries Award, followed by a residency at the Nirox Foundation in 2023, where he presented a selection of works across two venues installed at the Nirox Residency studio space and the new Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture. Selected solo exhibitions include As Far As The Sea (2023) at Reservoir Projects and Adamah (2022) at WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.

He has taken part in a number of group exhibitions locally, including We, the People: 30 years of Democracy in South Africa (2024-2025) at Norval Foundation,  Layers: Rock Art Across Space and Time, a travelling exhibition at Nirox Sculpture Park, with a second iteration installed at Brundyn Arts & Culture’s Boschendal Estate exhibition space, followed by the third iteration at the Origins Centre, Wits University (2023). Additional group exhibitions include Chapter One: Vernacular Materiality at PSM, Berlin (2025), signifying the impossible song at Southern Guild, Los Angeles, USA (2024), The Weight of a Stone (2022) at blank projects, Home Strange Home (2022) curated by Reservoir in collaboration with WHATIFTHEWORLD gallery, Verse (2022) at the Association for the Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Matereality (2020) at the Iziko South African National Gallery, the head the hand (2019) at blank projects, and AMAQABA Vol. 1 (2018), a collaborative body of work with Xhanti Zwelendaba at Eclectica Contemporary.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2023	As Far As The Sea, Reservoir Projects, Cape Town
	Good Grief, Nirox Foundation Residency and Villa-Legodi Centre for Sculpture, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg
2022	ADAMAH - ADAMAH, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
	Inga Somdyala | Artist-in-Residence - Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Tulbagh, Cape Town

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025	Chapter One: Vernacular Materiality, PSM, Berlin, curated by RESERVOIR, Berlin, Germany
2024	We, the People: 30 years of Democracy in South Africa, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
	signifying the impossible song, Southern Guild, Los Angeles, USA
	Things take time, time takes things, Pool Space, Cape Town, South Africa
2023	Fullhouse, blank projects, Cape Town
	Layers: Rock Art Across Space and Time, Nirox Sculpture Park, Krugersdorp, Johannesburg
2022	Home Strange Home - Krone x WHATIFTHEWORLD, Twee Jonge Gezellen, Tulbach
	Subject: Object, University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg
	The Weight of a Stone, blank projects, Cape Town
	Verse, Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town
	The Phoenix Runway - The Phoenix Runway, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2021	Falling Awake, THEFOURTH, Cape Town
2020	Matereality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2019	the head the hand, blank projects, Cape Town
2018	Amaqaba Vol. 1, Eclectica, Cape Town
2016	Unpacking, Eclectica Print Gallery, Cape Town
2015	Collective Noun, Michaelis Gallery, Cape Town

Art Fairs

Cape Town Art Fair 2025

Art Brussels 2024

Cape Town Art Fair 2024

The Armory Show 2023

Joburg Art Fair 2022

Awards

Permanent Collections