Biography

Dineo Seshee Bopape

South Africa

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Installation, Mixed media

Dineo Seshee Bopape

Born 1981 in Polokwane, South Africa
Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa

Dineo Seshee Bopape was born in 1981 on a Sunday. If she were Ghanaian, her name would be Akosua/Akos for short. In the year of her birth, the Brixton riots took place; two people were injured when a bomb exploded in a Durban shopping centre. Bobby Sands dies, MTV is launched, the Boeing 767 makes its first air flight, Umkhonto we Sizwe performs numerous underground assault operations against the apartheid state. There was an earthquake in China that killed maybe 50 people. Hosni Mubarak was elected president of Egypt, there was a coup d'etat in Ghana. Princess Diana of Britain married Charles. Bob Marley dies. Apartheid SA invaded Angola. AIDS is identified/created/named. Salman Rushdie releases Midnight's Children. In the region of her birth: Her paternal grandmother died. Julius Malema is born. Millions of people cried. Millions of people laughed! The world's population was apparently at around 4,529-billion. 

Bopape spent her youth in Limpopo in varying social situations. At 12 years of age she began to follow a hunger for an elsewhere, beginning with Durban where she spent some years and studied painting and sculpture. She is a 2007 graduate of De Ateliers in Amsterdam and in 2010 completed an MFA at Columbia University, New York. She was the winner of the 2008 MTN New Contemporaries Award, and the recipient of a 2010 Columbia University Toby Fund Award. She has shown her work in major and minor national and international exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions:

2013. Kgoro Ya Go Tšwa: Even If You Fall From A Circle. Stevenson Cape Town, South Africa
2011. ešobana!! lešobana! lešobana!! (le bulegile); lešobana! lešobana! lešobana!! (go phunyegile), Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010. long live the immaterial ... effect no.55, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam
2010. the eclipse will not be visible to the naked eye, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2010. like to remember things my own way, annarumma 404, Naples
2009. you fucking horrible bitch!, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008. love strung, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2008. it's a celebration bitches!!!, Thami Mnyele Studio, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007. non in mind (fictions unending) dreamweaver and other stories, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005. keep it to yourself, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa

Selected group exhibitions:

2013. My Joburg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
2013. Anthropology of Things and People. Arsenal gallery, Bialystok, Poland
2013. Digitale Afrique (Digital Africa), La Bastide St Joseph, Marseilles, France
2013. ! Kauru: Cultural Brokerage - Africa Imagined Act 1, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
2013. The Beautyful Ones, Nolan Judin, Berlin, Germany
2012. The Progress of Love, The Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, USA
2012. Fiction as Fiction (Or, A Ninth Johannesburg Biennale), Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2012. About Menocchio we know many things, Bétonsalon Centre d'art et de recherche, Paris, France
2012. If A Tree..., Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2012. The Next Generation, Pulchri Studio, The Hague
2012. Mine - A selection of films by SA artists, Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre, Dubai
2011. What we talk about when we talk about love, Stevenson, Cape Town
2011. Don't/Panic, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2011. Geography of Somewhere, Stevenson, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011. Lens: Fractions of Contemporary Photography and Video in South Africa, Stellenbosch University Art Museum, Stellenbosch
2011. (Re)constructions: Contemporary art in South Africa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Niterói, Brazil
2011. 20 Years Thami Mnyele Foundation, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011. Space, Ritual, Absence: Liminality in South African visual art, FADA Gallery, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
2011. Mine: A selection of films by South African artists, Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, Germany
2011. Alterating Conditions: Performing performance art in SA, GoetheonMain, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010.  Act IX: Let Us Compare Mythologies, Witte de With, Rotterdam
2010.  Ampersand, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2010.  Siren, Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, USA
2010.  Aaah, Liz, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2010.  Derangement, CCS Bard, New York, USA
2010.  Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in South African art, Fotogallery, Cardiff, Wales, UK
2009. Dada South?, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2009. Summer 2009/10: Projects Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2009. Life Less Ordinary: Performance and display in contemporary South African art, 2009. Djanogly Gallery, Nottingham, UK
2009. Dystopia, Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria (travelling exhibition)
Brick + Mortar Video Art Festival, Greenfields, MA, USA
2009. Rebelle: Art and Feminism 1969-2009, Moderne Kunst Museum Arnhem, Arnhem, The Netherlands
2009. Innovative Women, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg (travelling exhibition)
2009. Beauty and Pleasure in South African Contemporary Art, The Stenersen Museum, Oslo
2009. April Meetings Festival, Belgrade, Serbia
2009. The Generational: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York, USA
2009. Multipistes, Meneer De Wit Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2009. Thami Mnyele and Medu Art Ensemble Retrospective Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009. Postcards Beyond the Edge, Guth Garfa International Documentary Film Festival, Donegal, Ireland
2009. Under Construction 1, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008. Black Womanhood: Images, icons, and ideologies of the African body, Davis Museum, Wellesley College, MA, USA
2008. MTN New Contemporaries Award 2008, University of Johannesburg Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008. Scratching the Surface Vol 1, Association for Visual Arts (AVA) Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2008. Selection from Scratching the Surface Vol 1, L'apartment 22, Rabat, Morocco
2008. Disguise: The art of attracting and deflecting attention, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2008. Cutting the Cake, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2008. In Transition Russia 2008, various locations, Moscow, Russia
2008. ZA: Young Art from South Africa, Palazzo Delle Papesse, Siena, Italy
2007. Cape 07, Cape Town, South Africa
2007. Off-Spring, De Ateliers, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007. To a New Common Place, Mart House Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006. New Painting, KZNSA Gallery, Durban (travelling exhibition), South Africa
2006. Shared History/Decolonizing the Image, W139, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2006. De Grote Oversteek, Stedelijk Museum Zwolle, The Netherlands
2006. Hotspots Johannesburg: Post Whites Only, Rotterdam Film Festival, Off-Corso, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2006. Duo Show: Dineo Bopape and Thulani Shongwe, Gallery 23, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005. Urban twothousandandfive: Five urban women's stories, African Art Centre, Durban, South Africa
2005. In the Making: Materials and process, Michael Stevenson, Cape Town, South Africa
2005. Orientations and Illusions, for prog:ME, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2005. Nivea: START Art Competition finalists, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2005. Paperworks, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2005. Red Eye-Rouge, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2005. ABSA l'Atelier finalists exhibition, Alliance Francaise, Durban, South Africa
2004. Tangencya 2004/5, Durban, South Africa
2004. Women's Day-Imvubelo 2004, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004. Rejected-Abangafuneki, NSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2004. WeAreHere, BAT Centre, Durban, South Africa
2004. Crimes of Passion, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003. BAT Centre Christmas Show, BAT Centre Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2003. Samp and Beans, Bean Bag Bohemia, Durban, South Africa
2003. Women's Day workshop/exhibition, BAT Center, Durban, South Africa
2003. THWASA - a Thirrd Eye initiative (invited artist), KZNSA, Durban, South Africa
2003. My life as a reflection of other women's lives in South Africa, Women's Day exhibition, Durban Art Gallery, Durban, South Africa

Awards:

2008. MTN New Contemporaries Award winner, South Africa

Residencies:

2013. Nirox Artist's Residency, Gauteng, South Africa
2012. Darling Foundry Residency, Old Montreal, Quebec, Canada
2011. Sommerakademie im Zentrum Paul Klee 2011, Berne, Switzerland
2011. Suburban Residency Program, Sober & Lonely Institute for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg, South Africa
2011. Artist in Residence, Headlands Center for the Arts, San Francisco, California, USA
2011. Fountainhead Residency, Miami, Florida, USA
2008. Thami Mnyele, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007 - 2005. De Ateliers, Amsterdam