BIOGRAPHY
Self-taught artist Tuli Mekondjo lives and works in Windhoek, Namibia. She works with mixed media (embroidery, collage, paint, resin and mahangu grain, a Namibian food staple) and extends these textured media into performance. Drawing on photographic archives and histories of the loss and erasure of Namibian cultural practices, she explores history and identity politics through the lens of those who lived in exile during Namibia’s independence war.
She describes her approach as strongly ‘freestyle': “I get an idea, then I start working on experimental pieces to test it out. I'm very hands-on, very experimental. I learn as I go along, and in the process, I make mistakes, have lucky accidents, experience light bulb moments, and then discover interesting ways of doing things.”
@ courtesy of GUNS & RAIN, THE PROJECT ROOM & the artist
Solo exhibitions
- Oudjuu wo makipa etu/ The burdens of our Bones at Hales Gallery, New York, USA (2022)
- Limbadungila at The Project Room, Windhoek, Namibia (2019)
- The Bellowing Mind at Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre, Namibia (2016)
Group exhibitions
- Duo show "I was her and she was me..." at Sakhile & Me Art Gallery, Frankfurt/Main, Germany (2022)
- UNSETTLED - group exhibition curated by Duende Art Projects at Zwartzusters Monastery, Antwerp, Belgium (May-July 2022)
- Independent - group exhibition at Afrika-Haus Berlin, Germany (2022)
- THREADS - group exhibition together with El Anatsui - curated by Duende Art Projects at Zwartzusters Monastery, Antwerp, Belgium (2021)
- REDEFINING THE TREND – Histories in the Making - curated by Christine Eyene during 1-54 London at Christie’s, UK (2021)
- Memoria: récits d’une autre Histoire at Frac Nouvelle Aquitaine MÉCA, Bordeaux, France (2021)
- Finding Memories: Additions to an everyday archive of independence – Group Show at StArt Art Gallery, Windhoek, Namibia (2021)
- The Borders of Memory at Guns and Rain, Johannesburg, South Africa and at The Project Room, Namibia (2020)
- Suffrage Women’s Group Show at Guns & Rain, Johannesburg (2019)
- Future Africa Visions in Time exhibition, a 2018 collaboration between the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, Iwalewahaus Bayreuth and the Goethe-Institut Namibia
Art Fairs
- FNB Art Joburg 2021, Johannesburg, South Africa (with Guns & Rain)
- 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair London 2021, UK (with Guns & Rain)
- 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair London 2020, UK (with Guns & Rain)
- ARCO Lisboa Online 2020, Portugal (with Guns & Rain)
- Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2020, South Africa (with Guns & Rain)
- Untitled at Art Miami Beach 2020, USA (with Guns & Rain)
- 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair London 2019, UK (with Guns & Rain)
- AKAA (Also Known As Africa) Art & Design Fair in Paris, France (2019)
- varios group shows at art fairs in Johannesburg and Budapest (2016-2019)
Museums and Residencies
- 2022 Fellow of the Berliner Kuenstler-Programme: DAAD Artists-in-Berlin (1 year residency)
- Works at the National Art Gallery of Namibia
- Memoria: récits d’une autre Histoire at MuCAT (Musée des Cultures Contempraines Adama TOUNGARA), Abidjan, Ivory Coast (2022)
- COUNTER IMAGES | GEGENBILDER exhibition at Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum Cologne, Germany (2021-2022)
- Un.e Air.e de Famille exhibition as part of the Africa2020 Season at Museum of Art and History Paul Eluard, Saint-Denis, France (2021)
Tuli Mekondjo is exhibited by GUNS & RAIN, DUENDE Art Projects and HALES Gallery.
Instagram: @tuliphoenix
