Winning the 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for the Visual Arts marks a significant point in Blessing Ngobeni’s career. The prestigious award has been bestowed on him at a point in time when reflection plays a pivotal role in developing meaning, both in his personal and artistic journey.
Since his first solo exhibition at Everard Read’s CIRCA gallery in 2016, titled SONG OF CHICOTTE, Ngobeni has continued to strengthen his oeuvre by consistently delivering projects that, seeming effortlessly, present a combination of aesthetic and socio-political critical dialogues. His diverse artistry, skilfully realised in various mediums such as collages on canvas, stainless-steel sculptures and animated videos, played a significant role in both his nomination and winning of this award.
CHAOTIC PLEASURE, is a much anticipated body of work; a project conceived as a response to receiving the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts, which was announced in November 2019. The paradoxical title of this body of work represents a quintessential feature of Blessing’s work, his ability to manipulate and conjugate seemingly incongruous words in order to flummox, challenge and inspire the viewer.
This exhibition serves as both an observation and a form of confronting complex issues of power and abuse.
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