Mary Sibande

Mary Sibande, born in 1982, is a visual artist who lives and works in Johannesburg. She obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts at the Witwatersrand Technikon in 2004 and a B-Tech degree from the University of Johannesburg in 2007. Since then, Sibande has taken part in a number of solo and group shows and workshops, both locally, and in the USA and Europe. Sibande was named the 2013-14 Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year for visual art, and her large-scale work depicting the domestic worker-figure 'Sophie' has won her particularly widespread acclaim and recognition. She has also been a resident artist and fellow at various highly prestigious institutions internationally. In Sibande's practice as an artist, she employs the human form as a vehicle through painting and sculpture, to explore the construction of identity in a postcolonial South African context, but also as an attempt to critique stereotypical depictions of women, particularly black women, in our society.