Sam Nhlengethwa: Chronicle of a South African Visual Storyteller
Jabulani Sam Nhlengethwa (born 9 January 1955 in Payneville Township, Springs, Gauteng) is one of South Africa’s most influential contemporary artists, celebrated for his intricate collage work, figurative painting, printmaking, and visual narratives grounded in township life, jazz culture, and social identity . His career, stretching back to the mid‑1970s, has forged a visual archive that documents not only the aesthetics of everyday existence in South Africa but also the political and cultural transitions of the late apartheid and post‑1994 era . Nhlengethwa’s oeuvre is distinguished by its hybrid technique : he combines cut‑outs from found printed images, magazine clippings, etchings, and photogravure with painterly gestures, overlaying drawing, painting, and photographic fragments into cohesive, layered compositions. This method produces a collage that is at once narrative and associative , a kind of visual memoir shaped by both personal mem...
