COLLEN MASWANGANYI
I WAS BORN IN 17 JANUARY 1977 IN A RURAL VILLAGE CALLED NOBLEHOEK NEAR GIYANI IN LIMPOPO., SOUTH AFRICA. I COME FROM AN ARTISTIC FAMILY. MY FATHER IS A WELLKNOWN SCULPTOR.
MY FATHER JOHANNES MASWANGANYI HAS EXHIBITED LOCALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY. HE HAS TWO WIVES. COLLEN S MOTHER MPHEMPHU MAKES BEAD WORKS, MY FATHER S OTHER WIFE ESTHER MAKES BEAD WORKS, CLAY POTS AND EMBROIDERY.AND HAS EXHIBITED IN A NUMBER OF EXHIBITIONS. MY YOUNGER BROTHERS AND SISTERS ARE LEARNING THE SKILLS MENTIONED ABOVE. MY FATHER WAS TAUGHT BY HIS UNCLE (A BROTHER TO HIS FATHER) PIET MASWANGANYI.
I STARTED SCHOOL AT HAAKA PRIMARY SCHOOL IN 1983. PASSED MATRIC IN 1995 AT NDEGEZA HIGH SCHOOL AND REPEATED MATRIC AT NWAMAVIMBI IN 1996 TO IMPROVE MY SYMBOLS. STUDIED FINE ART AT TECHNIKON WITWATERSRAND FROM 1997 TO 1999 AND OBTAINED NATIONAL DIPLOMA
JUST LIKE MY FATHER, I WORK WITH WOOD AND PAINTS MOST OF MY SCULPTURES. I SOMETIMES MAKE LIFE SIZE OR LARGER THAN LIFE WORKS. MY ART IS ABOUT THE OLD AND NEW. I LOOK AT LIFE GENERALLY WHERE I MAKE SCULPTURES DRESSED IN AFRICAN TRADITION AND MODERN FASHION. I LOOK AT TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT. MY MOST POPULAR WORKS INVOLVE PEOPLE OR COUPLES SPEAKING ON PHONES OR DRESSED MODESTLY.
MY ART IS COLLECTED BY PRIVATE PEOPLE, MUSEUMS, CORPORATES, UNIVERSITIES AND GALLERIES. MY AIM IS TO EXHIBIT INTERNATIONALLY LIKE MY FATHER AND OTHER ARTIST FROM MY REGION LIKE NORIA MABASA AND JACKSON HLUNGWANI.
Johannes Maswanganyi
The Biography
Johannes Maswanganyi was born in 1949 at a place called Ka Msengi. The area is now known as Belleview a village in the Bolobedu area which is about 40 km from Giyani Town in Limpopo province.
Johannes, together with his whole family and most of the people under the leadership of Chief Msengi, were moved to where they now reside. The place is called Noblehoek Village. Noblehoek is about 15 kilometres north of Belleview. The move was a result of the Apartheid group act in the late 60’s. The people under Msengi Villages, formed 3 villages that are Noblehoek, Ximausa and Blinkwater.
Johannes Maswanganyi learnt the skill of wood carving from his uncle, Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi who was an elder brother to his father Jan Magezi Maswanganyi who passed on while Johannes was 11 years old. Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi was left to take care of Johannes and his siblings. That’s how Johannes got to learn wood carving as Piet was a carver of note then. He was a known crafter of beautiful things like wooden plates, spoons, forks, trays with wooden chains etc.
Johannes Maswanganyi together with his siblings and cousins would sit around and watch Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi carve. That’s how Johannes fell in love with wood Carving. Grand Pa Piet made tools for them so that everyone could learn to carve. One of the most important tools he made was a Mbatlo. Mbatlo is a self-made African tool. Some like to call it a chopper in English.
The Mbatlo tool became a Maswanganyi family legacy tool as it was used by the Late Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi, passed on to Johannes Maswanganyi, the third and fourth generation artists in the family Collen and Amorous Maswanganyi are still using it. Mbatlo tool became a big prosper story about Collen Maswanganyi. This story was commissioned by Absa Bank. The story was made into a 3-minute short video which was broadcast on several media platforms like Television channels across Africa, Newspapers, social media. The film can be seen on You Tube titled Mbatlo story. This film was produced as one of prosper stories looking into all success stories of all people who have gone through the Absa Bank sponsorships. The story played countless times at Absa Branches across the Continent.
Back to the Master Johannes on how he got to learn to become a carver. It was in 1965 while they were still staying in the Belleview that Johannes decided to take the skill of carving Serious. That’s when he carved his first meaningful sculpture that is now in the Collection of Tzaneen Museum.
Johannes continued to produce wood carvings which was about functional objects and were sold around the villages. While learning more on how to refine his skills, he expanded his territory to the local farms. He would travel by bicycle for about 40 kilometres to sell his artefacts to ZZ2, one of the worlds famous Tomato Farm in Limpopo.
Pressure kicked in. Most of his peers were moving to Gauteng and other cities in search of greener pastures. Art then, was not regarded as work enough that could generate a good living.
What was seen as proper Jobs back then was to be hired by construction companies run by white men. These companies came to the villages to get labourers and take them to the cities for work. Johannes too went with one construction to Rustenburg; he ended finding himself moving to Tembisa and found work in a brick making company in Olifantsfontein before he got a Job a t a Bakery.
All of the Jobs mentioned above, did not last much longer as his passion was on wood carving. Johannes went back home to continue with wood carving. Armed with the skill of knowing and navigating around the city of Gold, Johannes’s carvings were then sold to people as far as Soweto. Most buyers were traditional healers who bought things like his famous creation the Nyamisoro and Nhunguvani sculptures which were used as a muti Containers.
Nyamisoro sculpture introduced Johannes to the mainstream art industry. After all the years of making artefacts, he met Ricky Burnett in 1985. Ricky was a curator who frequented a traditional healer’s Practice in Soweto. The traditional healer~ by name of Peggy Moeketsi was one of Johannes clients. Ricky was very much attracted to the Nyamisoro sculpture and he wanted to know who the artist was. Ricky bought one of Johannes Nyamisoro sculpture and suggested that Johannes bring more work for him to see.
Johannes’ first exhibition was the famous Sponsored BMW tributaries in 1985 curated by Rick Burnett. That exhibition paved a greater path for Maswanganyi’s journey into mainstream art market. This made institutions like Goodman art Gallery, Evarard Read art Gallery, Hellen De Leeuw, Natalie Knight galleries and many institutions wanting to have a piece of his work to show.
The question was how the art world was trying to place his work. To some, his work was craft while to some it was art. Johannes is considered a self-taught artist because he had never had any formal art training education but his best teacher was through the family legacy led by Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi.
The Exhibitions.
Mr Johannes Maswanganyi has participated in a number of solo and Group exhibitions locally and internationally. His works can be found in prominent collections like Johannesburg Art Gallery, Standard bank Art collection. Unisa Art Gallery, Javett centre, Pretoria Art Museum, Wits Art Museum, Sasol, Tzaneen art Museum, Polokwane art Museum, AVA Gallery. Internationally his works are in the collection of Vereinsbank in Germany, Rotterdam Museum in the Netherlands and many private collectors overseas. Many of his activities in art are covered in his Biography supplied.
My Maswanganyi is one Of the Stars of the North as referred to by the Wits Art Museum on an exhibition they had in 2017 in which they were looking at art and artists from the late 1980’s era from the Former Venda and Gazankulu Areas. Most of the artists are no longer actively exhibiting like they use to do back in the day.
Mr Maswanganyi remained very active though. Wits art Museum senior curator Julia Charlton refers to him as more of an artist entrepreneur who would not wait for clients and art Collectors to come to him but would drive all the way with art at the back of his bakkie from Giyani in Limpopo and organise meetings and visits in Johannesburg and Pretoria to show his works of art to Art galleries, art dealers and Collectors alike. He even drove as far as Durban and Cape Town chasing the horizon as he felt that he needed to show his work to as many aspiring collectors as he can. So this made him remain more relevant as he would be included in more group exhibitions at art Galleries like Everard Read, Knysna Fine Art, Goodman Gallery, Lizamore and Associates, Gallery 2, Spaza Gallery just to name a few.
Mr Johannes Maswanganyi had a wish to have his sons and daughters to follow in his footsteps. He is the father of 11 children from two wives. His first born son Collen Maswanganyi bought the idea of his wish and followed in his footsteps. Johannes treats his art as a kingdom where the king or a chief trains an elderly child to take over when he passes on. With his son following in his footsteps, this wish was achieved successfully. This became one of the great solution in his relevance as an artist.
Collen studied Fine art at the then Technikon Witwatersrand and has since decided to practice art Full time since the year 2000. Collen has made many connections in the art world and every time he speak about his art and history, everything leads back to Johannes Maswanganyi. Johannes history takes everything back to a rich carving family legacy started by Piet Mafemani Maswanganyi.
Through Collen’s Facilitation, Mr Johannes Maswanganyi was honoured as a main Festival artist at KKNK 2018. Collen was at the same Festival given an award as a New Voice for KKNK 2018. Collen and Johannes had a great Collaboration exhibition titled “Carve and Dance with my father”. This exhibition was chosen as a best presentation in Visual art at the Kanna Awards of that year 2018. Collen and Johannes were further asked by KKNK to make awards for 2022 Kanna awards ceremony.
Another exhibition that Collen Facilitated was a two men show at Lizamore and Associates in the year 2009. The exhibition was titled “The measure of Success” This Exhibitions was looking at what is referred to success from the understanding Johannes’ Generation and Collen’s Generation.
Collen Continues to help his father as a point of contact for many issues pertaining Johannes Art. Other than his Son , Johannes has helped many artists with their careers. Artists like Settlers Chavalala, Richard Chauke Amorous Maswanganyi, Doctor Ngoveni and his late brother amongst others.
Johannes as an artist entrepreneur, helped collect and sell many art and craft artefacts like claypots from Mukondeni Potters and beadworks from women around Limpopo. He use to drive with these artefacts and his art to Johannesburg and present to where they were needed.
