Sam Nhlengethwa

Born in Payneville township of Springs in Gauteng, he relocated early with his family to Kwa-Themba and spent his childhood with his grandmother in Ratanda. Being born into a family of jazz lovers, Sam's work was inspired by jazz and townships he grew up in. He began collecting jazz records from the age of 17 and started assembling his art collection in 1977[1] while in school and swapped his own work for those of his schoolmates. In his own art, he drew inspiration from the townships where he grew up. He attended the Rorke’s Drift and studied at the Johannesburg Art Foundation and the Mofolo Art Centre in Soweto.[2]

Nhlengethwa began his career in 1976[3] and later taught part-time at the Johannesburg-based Federative Union of Black Artists (FUBA). While studying at the Mofolo Art Centre in Soweto, he participated in Thupelo and Triangle workshops. He co-founded the Bag Factory Artists’ Studio in Johannesburg in 1991 to provide studio space and artistic resources to black artists. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist award in 1994,[1] and worked as a television technician for South African Broadcasting Corporation for 13 years.

His works are exhibited throughout globally with collections at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Iziko South African National Gallery, the Durban Art Gallery and numerous others. He is represented by the Goodman Gallery in South Africa.[4]

Jazz is rhythmic and it emphasizes interpretation rather than composition. There are deliberate tonal distortions that contribute to its uniqueness. My jazz collages, with their distorted patterns, attempt to communicate all of this.

— Sam Nhlengethwa

Nhlengethwa collage style niche uses hard-edge cut out and cut up shapes of ready-made images from selected reproductions and juxtaposed to make new images, often combined with other media to create new forms. He also work with photogravure and lithographs.[5] In his prints and paintings, he uses overlays of techniques such as collage painting, drawing and photography.[6]

Sam Nhlengethwa had created 277 artworks[7] which includes:

• 2018 Inspired by Romare Bearden and Ernest Cole
• 2018 Waiting for Green
• 2018 ...to be rescued I & II
• 2019 The Market Square
• 2019 Park Station
• 2019 JSE in Winter
• 2019 South side of Constitution Hill
• 2013 Stand Accussed [sic?]
• 2014 Tribute to Ephraim Ngatane

In the course of his career, Nhlengethwa had collaborated with various South African printmaking studios namely:[3]

• The Artists’ Press
• Artist Proof Studio
• David Krut Print Workshop
• LL Editions Fine Art Lithography Studio
• MK & Artists Print Workshop
• Mo Editions Printmaking Studio
• Sguzu Printmaker’s Workshop