About The Artist

"...By combining two elements - the archive and the relic - the artist brings together that rare combination of memory with ‘thing’ - the tangible and the intangible - allowing a bridge to be constructed between history and the contemporary. The methods she employs are translation into evolving language, interpretation into evolving meanings, and mediation from an archival source into magical renderings of fabric, sequins, crystals and light."

The first striking thing when encountering Makan's work is her exuberant use of materials: swatches of silk and silken threads, sequins and crystals and ribbons come together on fabric that shimmers or is netted, like a veil, to reveal both the front and the back. She is lavish in her choice of media. With abandon, she creates light streams that visually jump, like nerve impulses, into the shimmer of graphic outlines and glassy pools. Her base fabrics form flat matt substrates for reflective animations. The viewing experience is sensuous and seductive. Presenting one medium against another, the textures emerge. Matt and gloss interface to create physical relief, visual buckles, additional dimensions, and varied topographies. Narratives are told through these animations; new things always emerge. Each viewing moment is different from the next, and this is part of the works' enticement: continual flux, signs of tension, drawing the viewer closer. 

- Brenton Maart on Nomalungelo: Threads to Freedom series

Brenton Maart, M.Sc. (Rhodes University), M.A. (University of the Witwatersrand).Curator: South African Pavilion at 55th la Biennale di Venezia. PhD Scholar: Centre for Curating the Archive, Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town

Artist Biography

Amita Makan was born in South End, Port Elizabeth, currently lives and works in Pretoria, South Africa, and has produced four solo exhibitions to date: Āvāhana – Invocation (Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Bleomfontein, 2021), Vasant (Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, 2016), Nomalungelo: Threads To Freedom (Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, 2014), and Evanescence (KZNSA, Durban, 2011; Ron Belling Gallery, Port Elizabeth, 2011).

Selected group exhibitions include: Awesome Womxn (Arts of Association, Pretoria, 2019), Artgenève (Galerie Rosa Turetsky, Geneva, 2019, 2018, 2017), Emerging Visions: Launch exhibition of the National Art Bank (Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, 2017–2018), Speaking out and Standing up (Oliewenhuis Museum, Bloemfontein, 2018), Aqua (Art for the World, Lake Maggiore, 2018), A New Humanity (Dakar Biennale, Dakar, 2018), Ubuntutu: A Commitment to Peace, Love and Social Justice – Quilt Tributes To Desmond and Leah Tutu (Robben Island Museum, Cape Town; Stellenbosch University Museum; Potchefstroom Museum, 2016–2017), Imago Mundi – Bennetton Foundation (Ca’dei Carraresi, Treviso; Museo Bilotti, Rome; Giogio Cini Foundation, Venice Biennale; Pratt Institute of Brooklyn; and the United Nations, New York, 2015).

Makan has been awarded residencies at the Cite International des Arts (Paris, 2014) and the Chowmahalla Palace of the Centre for World Exposition of Arts and Culture (Hyderabad, 2010). In 2014 she participated in France–South Africa Dialogues at the Orangerie du Senat, Paris, and in 1994 received a British Council Scholarship. In 2016–2017, Makan collaborated with Reach for Recovery on the Artivism for Breast Cancer fashion programme.

The artist’s works are housed in the following collections: South African National Art Bank, Robert Sobukwe Museum and Learning Centre, University of South Africa, Dr Miriam Makeba Concert Hall, University of Pretoria, Edoardo Villa Museum, South African Reserve Bank, Durban International Convention Centre, Luciano Benetton Foundation, and the Chowmahalla Palace Collection.

Amita has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and Political Science (1989), a BA Honors Degree (1990) and a Masters Degree (1993) in International Relations from Rhodes University. She worked as a policy researcher at the University of Cape Town and the Human Sciences Research Council in Pretoria. In 1994 she was awarded a British Council Scholarship to study Gender Policy and Planning at the University College London in the United Kingdom.

Amita passed away suddenly in 2023.

Solo Exhibitions