Description
Bio
Unathi Mkonto (b. 1982, Peddie, South Africa) is a Cape Town based multidisciplinary artist with a background in architecture, holding a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from Nelson Mandela University. Largely self-taught as an artist, Mkonto works across drawing, sculpture, installation, and performance, often using materials such as Velcro, vinyl, and plywood. His practice explores the body’s relationship to space, drawing on South Africa’s apartheid-shaped built environment to interrogate how architecture both confines and humanizes. Blurring lines between art and architecture, Mkonto creates forms that are simultaneously structural and intimate, opening space for new ways of inhabiting and imagining place.
Recent & Notable Exhibitions
- “Lifelines” (Group Show) at Goodman Gallery, London (10 July – 23 August 2025)
- “In Place” (Solo exhibition in residency format) at Stevenson, Amsterdam (4 April – 1 June 2024) — a culminating open‑studio exhibition emerging from his self-directed “anti‑architecture” exploration.
- “To Let” (Studio‑resident exhibition) at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (22 June 2023 – 25 February 2024) — part of the museum’s Atelier program.
- “Juxtapositions” at Stevenson, Cape Town (May – June 2023), featuring Mkonto alongside David Goldblatt.
