Yolanda Mazwana is a self-taught artist born in Port Elizabeth. Combining elements of abstract expressionism, neo-expressionism and symbolism, her work addresses themes around mental illness, phobias, popular culture, and relationship. In 2019, Mazwana received The Bag Factory Young Woman Studio Bursary, Johannesburg, and in 2020, she was awarded the second prize for the Emerging Painting Invitational Prize, Harare, Zimbabwe. Mazwana’s series ‘Symptoms of Nothing‘ (2019) utilised colour and texture to mimic the ambiguous experiences of a person suffering from hypochondria. This symbolic use of colour and texture speaks to the idea that the hypochondriac is not necessarily aware of what exactly it is they are experiencing or why. She has recently participated in the NIROX Foundation Artist Residency as well as THEFOURTH Artist Residency Programme in South Africa. Her work has been shown at various destinations across Southern Africa, the America’s and Europe.

“I paint unusual formative characters to connect the dots about the questions around the female body, and what it goes through. I vent about the vulnerabilities of the mind, the emotions, the reproductive system and how our physical and physiological responses to trauma affect us. How our bodies respond to medications and the things that go misdiagnosed, the things that are going to be dismissed and forgotten, the things we have to protect ourselves from. The things we choose to keep hidden, to be healed and protected.” - Yolanda Mazwana

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022
‘Read the Room’, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2021
‘Mazwana | Mkonto', The Fourth, Cape Town, South Africa
‘After Midnight’, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2019
‘Symptoms of Nothing’, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Secret Homegirls’, Daville Baillie Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023
‘Hiatus’, EBONY/CURATED, Cape Town, South Africa
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2022
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Untitled Art, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Miami, United States of America
AKAA, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Paris, France
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘Woman to Woman’, Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany

2021
Turbine Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Nu Wave’, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘From Present to Pivot’, Kalashnikovv Gallery and The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘The Next Movement’, Kalashnikovv Gallery and Merchantec Capital, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Winter Group Show’, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2020
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Turbine Art Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
African Art Galleries Now Art Fair with A.A.G.A and Artsy (Online Exhibition)
Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
‘If Yesterday Was Tomorrow What Is Today’, Bode Projects, Berlin, Germany
Emerging Africa Art Prize Finalist Group Exhibition (Online Exhibition)
‘A Catalogue of Contemporary Emerging African Art’, JAH Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
‘Kernel’, Mason’s Press, Cape Town, South Africa
Apartment 2.0 x THEFOURTH, Cape Town, South Africa

2019
FNB Art Joburg Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Turbine Art Fair, Kalashnikovv Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa