Samson Kambalu

B. 1975, Malawi. Lives and works in Oxford, United Kingdom.

EDUCATION

CCA, Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, United Kingdom, PhD, (2011-2016)

NTU, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom, MA, Fine Art (2002–2003)

UNIMA, University of Malawi, BA, Malawi, Fine Art and Ethnomusicology (1995–1999)

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021

Fracture Empire, Culturgest, Lisbon, Portugal

Fracture Republic, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden

Fractured Mission, Magdalen College Old Library, Oxford

Beni, Kate MacGarry, London

New Liberia, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford

Black Jack, Southbank, London

2020

Nyau Cinema, Cable Club, British Council Collection, online

Postcards from the Last Century, Peer, London

2019

Dallas Medianale 2019, The MAC, Dallas, USA

Nyasaland Analysand, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2018

Graphomania, The James Gallery, The Graduate Centre, CUNY, New York

2017

Wounded Negatives, Zietz Mocca, Cape Town, South Africa

Ghost Dance, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town South Africa

Nyau Western: American Psychogeographicals, Art Basel Statements, Switzerland

Red Barn Farm, Galerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden

2016

Nyau Cinema (Black Maria), NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Miami USA

Introduction to Nyau Cinema, Whitechapel Gallery, London

Capsules, Mountains and Forts, Kate MacGarry, London

2015

The Unbearable Lightness of Nyau Cinema, Gallery U Mloka, Olomouc, Czech Republic

2014

Sepia Rain, Stevenson Johannesburg, South Africa

2012

Tattoo City: The First Three Chapters (with guests), Castlefield Gallery, Manchester

2009

Roseanne, Sai Gallery, Osaka, Japan

2004

Holyball Exercises and Exorcisms, Usher Gallery, Lincoln

2001

The Gideons’ Room, Winston Hotel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2000

Exercise IV, Thami Mnyele Foundation, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Holyball Exercises and Exorcisms, Chancellor College, Zomba, Malawi

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)

2021

Eclipse, Athens Biennale

Bold Black British, curated by Aindrea Emelife, Christie’s, London

Fourth Plinth Shortlist Exhibition, National Gallery, London

Light the Night, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, USA

We are Here: Artists Moving Image from the British Council Collection – Songs from a Forgotten Past, Centro Centro, Madrid, Spain

2020

Fotofest Biennial – African Cosmologies, Houston, Texas

History Without A Past – with Vincent Meessen of Venice 2015 Belgian Pavilion, Muzee, Ostend, Belgium

Happy, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

2019

Pierrick Sorin and Samson Kambalu film screenings, Centre Pompidou, Paris

African Cosmologies, Dallas Media Fest, Dallas, Texas

2018

African Metropolis, curated by Simon Njami, Maxxi, Rome

2017

The Art of Dissonance, Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea

The Public Body, Artspace, Sydney, Australia

Afriques Capitales/Capital Africas, curated by Simon Njami, La Villette, Paris, France

Cinema Mon Armour, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland

Summer Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2016

Qalandiya International Biennale, Haifa, Gaza, London, Beirut, Amman, Jerusalem, Ramallah & Bethlehem 2016, Retrogarde, The Rogan Centre, University of Chicago, USA

Detail is All, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany

Dakar Biennale, Senegal

Liverpool Biennial, UK

Art Festival Watou, Belgium

Lost & Found, Paradiso, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2015

2015–2021, Lumieres d’Afriques, Théâtre National de Chaillot, Paris; Donwahi Foundation, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire; Institut Fondamental D’Afrique Noire, Dakar, Senegal; Palais des Nations, Geneva; Africa Union’s Headquarters, Addis Ababa; EUMESTAT, Darmstadt, Germany; Mohammed VI Museum, Rabat, Morocco; Johannesburg, South Africa.

Embodied, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen, Denmark

50/50, New Church Museum, Cape Town

Drawing Biennial, London

Transformation Marathon, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Serpentine Gallery, London

Schema, Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa

All the World’s Futures, 56th Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, Venice

2014

Chroma, Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa

Dakar Biennial, Senegal 2014, Nyau!, Espace D’art Contemporain, Porrentury, Switzerland

2013

2013–14, The Book Lovers, Artist novels project: Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw; De Appel, Amsterdam; Cricoteka, Krakow

2009

Tokyo International Art Festival, Tokyo, Japan

2009–2010, Dialogue Among Nations, Art for Humanity, South Africa. (Part of FIFA World Cup 2010)

2008

Art Osaka, Osaka, Japan

The Mausoleum of Lost Objects, INIVA, London

Next We Change Earth, The New Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham

2006

Hinterland, Nottingham

Ballkünstler, (Part of FIFA World Cup 2006) Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Leipzig, Germany. Artists included Kendall Geers, Greg Colson and Wim Delvoye.

The Beautiful Game, Brooklyn Institute of Contemporary Arts, USA

2004

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2004, The Barbican, London, UK.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2004, Liverpool Biennial, UK

One Step Beyond, Derby Museum and Art Gallery, UK

2003

Guess Who, Stedelijk Museum, Zwolle, The Netherlands

Black My Story, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere, The Netherlands. (Artists included Jimmie Durham, Remy Jungeman, Shirana Shahbazi and Chikako Watanabe.)

AWARDS / GRANTS / RESIDENCIES

2021

Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists

Fourth Plinth Commission 2022-24

TORCH Oxford, Knowledge Exchange Fellowship

John Fell Award, New Liberia, Modern Art Oxford

John Fell Award, Fourth Plinth maquette 2020, London Mayor’s Fourth Plinth

2016

Artist residency, Headlands Centre for the Arts, San Francisco, USA

2015

Research fellowship, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, USA

2014

Research fellowship, Yale Centre for British Art, USA

2013

Adler Entrepreneurship Award, Germany

AHRC PhD Research Award, UK

2010

Artlink, Performative reading book tour award, Switzerland

Schloss Elmau Writer-in-Residence, Bavaria, Germany

Rauris Literature Festival Honoured Guest, Austria

Jive Talker Winner of National Book Tokens Global Reads

Arts Council Writing Grant for Tattoo City

Society of Authors Writing Grant, London for Tattoo City

2006

The Fritschy Award Nominee, The Netherlands

2005

2005–2010, ACME, The Fire Station Residency

2004

Decibel Visual Arts Award (Arts Council)

The Arts Council Exhibition Grant (Holyballism, The Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham)

Bloomberg New Contemporaries. Selectors: Kate Bush, Dinos Chapman, Tacita Dean, Brian Griffiths.

2000

The Thami Mnyele Artist Residency, Amsterdam

FILM

2021

A Game of War: Sanguinetti v Kambalu Trial at Ostend, in collaboration with Twee-eiige Drieling and Mu.Zee. Screenings followed by discussion at the Vredegerecht Oostende and Rechtbank Antwerpen

2019
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, BBC, Netflix (Actor, translator, and consultant)

PUBLICATIONS AUTHORED BT THE ARTIST

2022
More Lasting than Bronze, contributor and editor, Harvard University Press,

2016
Nyau Cinema, in Liverpool Biennale catalogue, The Two-Sided Lake, UK

2014
Great African Minds: Dr Charles Chanthunya, published by Peter Hammer Verlag

2013

The Museum and the Individual, essay on Meschac Gaba’s Museum of Contemporary African Art, commissioned by Tate Modern

2012

Uccello’s Vineyard (a novel)

2011

Der skurrile Diktator (A review of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The Wizard of the Crow), published Kalturaustausch, IFA, Germany

2010

Dr Albert Schweitzer’s Troublesome Young Brother, Kulturaustausch, IFA, October 2010, Germany

Windmill Jive, Salz Magazine, April 2010, Austria

2009
Action Bitte – Malawians at Leisure, Kulturaustausch, IFA, August 2009, Germany

2008
The Jive Talker (autobiographical novel), published by Jonathan Cape, UK; Simon and Schuster, USA; Unionsverlag, Germany

PUBLICATIONS ON THE ARTIST’S WORK

2021

African Artists: From 1882 to Now, Phaidon, London

2020
African Cosmologies: Photography, Time and the Other, Mark Sealy, Schilt Publishing, Amsterdam

2018

The Artists Who Will Change the World, Omar Kholeif, Thames and Hudson, London

2017

Afriques Capitales/Capital Africas, Simon Njami, Kehrer, Heidelberg

Cinema Mon Armour: Kino in der Kunst/Film in Art, Madeleine Schuppli, Kunsthaus Aargauer, Scheidegger & Spiess, Aarau

2015

Embodied, Jacqui Davis, Nikolaj Kunsthal, Copenhagen

All the World’s Futures, Okwui Enwezor, Venice Biennale 2015

2014

Black Artists in British Art: A History Since the 1950s, Eddie Chambers, IB Tauris, London

Nyau Cinema, Stevenson Gallery, South Africa

2011

Atelier Gesprache, Sabine Coelsch-Foisner, Verlag Anton Pustet

2010

Southern African Travel Guide, recommendation by Lonely Planet Publications

Malawi and Zambia Travel Guide, recommendation by Lonely Planet Publications

2009

Artsadmin 30th Anniversary, Artsadmin, London

2008

Next We Change Earth, The New Art Exchange Gallery, Nottingham

2006

The Bradt Travel Guide to Malawi, recommendation by Phillip Briggs

Ballkünstler, Museum der Bildenden Kunste Leipzig

2004

Museum de Paviljoens: Journal of a Building 1992-2004, the Museum de Paviljoens

2003

Black My Story, Museum De Paviljoens, Almere, The Netherlands.

Exedra, Phillip Van De Bossche

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

The UK Government Art Collection; British Council Art Collection; Tate Modern; NSU Art Museum; Bury Museum of Art; Magasin III – Museum of Contemporary Art, Stockholm; Kunsthalle Hamburg; Contemporary Art Society and private collections