From her earliest works to the present, Kavula’s art has existed between the intersections of painting, printmaking, drawing and sculpture, pushing the limitations of each.
Bonolo Kavula was born in 1992 in Kimberley, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. She obtained a BA(FA) from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town in 2014, majoring in Printmaking. Kavula received the 2014 Katrine Harries Print Cabinet Award at UCT and she was a founding member of the Cape Town-based artist collective, Iqhiya.
Kavula’s recent works use traditional Shweshwe cloth, invoking cultural, ancestral, archival and historical connotations specific to her work. She paid homage to her ancestors in her first solo show at SMAC Gallery, Sewedi Sewedi, by titling works after late loved ones. Using her mother’s red Shweshwe dress (a family heirloom) as inspiration, pieces can thus be read through the lens of memory – both collective and individual.
In 2021, Kavula was awarded the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, and went on to present her first museum exhibition at the Norval Foundation, in Cape Town, South Africa the following year. Other recent projects include a solo booth at the 2021 Art Basel Miami Beach, titled A re kopane ko thabeng, a solo booth at the 2020 Investec Cape Town Art Fair (as part of the TOMORROWS/TODAY section), a 2019 performance at A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, and Twenty Sexy, a performance at blank projects gallery in Cape Town (2018).
Lewatle
Gallery 9, The Norval Foundation
29 October 2022 – 20 March 2023
Solo Exhibitions and Performances
2023
Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
15 Jun 2023 – 18 Jun 2023
2022
Soft Landing, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
Lewatle, The Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa.
2021
a re kopane ko thabeng, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami, USA.
sewedi sewedi, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2020
TOMORROWS/TODAY, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa.
2019
Art Times, live stand-up comedy art performance, A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa.
2018
Twenty Sexy, live stand-up comedy performance, blank projects gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.