Available Works

About

Contemporary Southern Africa forms an example of a distinct, and new social condition. One in which political and social borders define different political incarnations of African democracy and creates a vast transient community of displaced. Michele Mathison currently lives and works on both sides of the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

His sculptures are a study on the value of familiar objects and how they have developed into the prevalent imagery and symbols of sub-Saharan Africa’s post-independent condition. By removing the utility from everyday tools and decaying urban infrastructure, Mathison presents the irony of their transformation into symbolic guises.

Examining the form and function of quotidian objects, Mathison builds geometric groups and visual fields. Considering how an individual piece relates to the whole, his work creates a narrative of the region’s collective concerns. Themes in his work, such as the migration of people and natural resources, represent both the personal and political.

Mathison also makes use of marks or residue left behind when minerals and artefacts are extracted from land, often referring to agricultural, mining, and building sites to highlight issues of capital, labour, and economic inequality.

Michele Mathison was born in South Africa in 1977 and raised in Zimbabwe. Through sculpture and installation, his work has consistently drawn from observations of daily, lived experience in order to interpret and understand the shifting dynamics of labour, cultivation and urban decay in Southern Africa.

Contemporary Southern Africa forms an example of a distinct, and new social condition. One in which political and social borders define different political incarnations of African democracy and creates a vast transient community of displaced. Michele Mathison currently lives and works on both sides of the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

His sculptures are a study on the value of familiar objects and how they have developed into the prevalent imagery and symbols of sub-Saharan Africa’s post-independent condition. By removing the utility from everyday tools and decaying urban infrastructure, Mathison presents the irony of their transformation into symbolic guises.

Examining the form and function of quotidian objects, Mathison builds geometric groups and visual fields. Considering how an individual piece relates to the whole, his work creates a narrative of the region’s collective concerns. Themes in his work, such as the migration of people and natural resources, represent both the personal and political.

Mathison also makes use of marks or residue left behind when minerals and artefacts are extracted from land, often referring to agricultural, mining, and building sites to highlight issues of capital, labour, and economic inequality.

Mathison completed his BFA at Michaelis School of Fine Arts, University of Cape Town, South Africa in 2000. He has since had 3 solo exhibitions with WHATIFTHEWORLD, including Over and over (2021), States of Emergence (2017) and Manual (2014). Other noteworthy solo exhibitions include: Dissolution (2018) and Uproot (2016) at Tyburn Gallery, London; Harvest (2015) at the Zeitz MOCAA Scheryn Pavilion, Cape Town and EXIT/EXILE (2014) at Nirox Projects, Johannesburg.

Noteworthy group exhibitions include Inner Landscapes (2019) at Galleria Anna Marra, Rome, Broken English (2015) at Tyburn Gallery, London and Dudziro (2013), Zimbabwe Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale, Venice. The same body of work, titled, Harvest, was later installed at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) as a special presentation for the opening of the museum in 2017, alongside the inaugural group exhibition. Mathison has also shown the large-scale work Parallax at Frieze Sculpture in London (2018) and installed the public sculpture, Angular Mass (2017), for the V&A Waterfront and Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. He spent much of 2019 in residence in Italy at Muse Salentine, Alessano and Castello San Basilio, Pisticci and in 2020 he relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town. In 2021, the artist completed a series of three significant public sculptures, commissioned by North-West University to be installed on their campus.

Mathison is included in collections such as the Norval Foundation’s Homestead collection, the Zeitz MOCAA permanent collection, the Leridon Collection, Spier Arts Trust and the Standard Bank Art Collection. Most recently, Mathison’s work was acquired by the Celine Art Project, curated by Hedi Slimane for Celine Shanghai.

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2021	Over and over - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2018	Dissolution. Tyburn Gallery, London
2017	States of Emergence - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Johannesburg
	States of Emergence - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2016	Uproot, Tyburn Gallery, London
2015	Harvest, Zeitz MOCAA Scheryn Pavilion, Cape Town
2014	Manual - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2011	EXIT/EXILE, Nirox Projects, Johannesburg, South Africa

Selected Group Exhibitions

2022	The Phoenix Runway - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2021	That Hidden Thread, NIROX Sculpture Park, Johannesburg
	RESTUDIO, Cunningham Contemporary, Johannesburg
2018	Frieze Sculpture, Regent's Park, London
	AKAA Carreau Du Temple, Paris
2016	A Place in Time, Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg
	Negative Space - WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
2015	Broken English, Tyburn Gallery, London
	You love me, You love me not, Galeria municipal do Porto, Portugal
	Nirox Sculpture / Winter 2015, Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg
2014	Nirox Sculpture / Winter 2014, Nirox Sculpture Park, Johannesburg
	Public sculpture, Arts on Main, Johannesburg
	Zoo, Nirox projects, Johannesburg
2013	Dudziro, Zimbabwe Pavilion, 55th Venice Biennale
	Trans-Africa, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg
2012	Outside the lines, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town
	Southern Guild, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg
2011	EXIT/EXILE, Nirox Projects, Johannesburg
2009	HIFA, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare
	Various, Brodie/Stevenson, Johannesburg
2005	Visions of Zimbabwe, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester

Permanent Collections