Moshekwa Langa’s indexical practice spans drawing, installation, video, and photography, culling materials from his immediate surroundings to record his own history and emotions. Influenced by his upbringing in a rural apartheid-era “Homeland” not included on most maps, Langa actively maps his own autobiography in his work, using significant people, events, and places in his life as a foundation to reflect on physical and psychological borders. Langa’s large-scale works on paper are central to this project – often dreamlike in their appearance, they result from the accumulation of ephemeral marks and actions and the mediation of seemingly heterogenous elements. Poetic and sentimental, Langa’s work seeks to create visualizations of events and feelings not translatable to language, and grapple with the slippery qualities of meaning.
Moshekwa Langa lives and works in Paris and Amsterdam. Past solo exhibitions of Langa’s work have been presented at venues that include Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland, Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom, The Renaissance Society, Chicago, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, among others. In 2018, Langa’s work was included in We Don’t Need Another Hero, 10th Berlin Biennale, Germany, and The Red Hour, The 13th Dakar Biennale, Senegal. Langa additionally participated in the 2011 Lyon Biennale, the 2010 and 1998 editions of the Bienal de São Paulo, the 2009 and 2003 editions of the Venice Biennale, and the 1997 Johanneburg Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor.
[excerpted from Andrew Kreps website: www.andrewkreps.com]