About The Artist
Artist CV
Tommy Trevor Seth Motswai, born 27 May 1963 in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Education
Schooling
- 1968 - 1979: Attended Kutlwanong School for the Deaf.
Art Training
- 1980 - 1982: Training at Federated Union of Black Artists (FUBA)
- Johannesburg Art Foundation (JAF)
- Bill Ainslie's Art Studio
- FUBA gallery
1982 - 1983: Assistant to Kurt Lossgott
1985: Santam Bursary
Solo Exhibitions
- 1988: Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg
- 1990: Natalie Knight Gallery.
- 1992: Received the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award Work exhibited at the Grahamstown Festival Nation-wide year long tour.
- 2000: Solo Exhibition - Potchefstroom Museum
- 1999: Solo exhibition at the opening of the new Tourism Information and Development Centre in Rustenburg.
Group Exhibitions
- 1986: Participated in the exhibition Tomorrow is Now which toured Canada from Toronto to Vancouver. The show was curated by Knight Galleries International and Natalie Knight - The Art Source South Africa.
- 1988: Included in the Cape Town Triennial
- 1995/6: Chosen as guest artist in Toronto of New Horizons Work selected to be exhibited by Centre for the Arts and the Bomani Gallery, both in San Francisco
- 1997: Commissioned by Telkom to produce a work for the Art and the Internet exhibition, a nationwide exhibition which was also beamed to the world on the net
- Selected by the Standard Bank as part of their social awareness campaign.
- 2001: Joint exhibition - Millennium Gallery, Pretoria
- 2003:
- Prints from The Artists' Press Archive, Good Hope Gallery, The Castle, Cape Town.
Projects and Commissions
- 1994: Commissioned to paint a portrait of President Mandela for the cover of Vogue Magazine (France).
- 2000: Campaign Poster for Masifunde Sonke, Building a Nation of Readers.
- Awake week of Disability of South Africans. Durban
- Portrait of Thabo Mbeki on 1 May at Wintersveld
Awards
- 1985: Santam Bursary Award
- 1987: Volkskas Atelier Merit Prize
- 1987: Sol Plaatjies Art Award; Excelsior Award
- 1988: Vita Art Now Award - Winner of the 1st Quarterly Fine Art
- 1989; Vita Art Now Award - Merit Award
- 1992: Standard Bank Young Artist Award
- 1992: Four Outstanding Young South Africans "FOYSA" 92
Public Collections
- Johannesburg Art Gallery
- SA National Gallery Cape Town
- University of South Africa (UNISA)
- University of the Witwatersrand (WITS)
- Sasol Art Collection
- Trust Bank Art Collection
- Pretoria Art Museum
- Durban Art Museum
- King George VI Art Museum, Port Elizabeth
Publications
- Humour in the Contemporary Artwork of Tommy Motswai by Bhavisha Laxmi Panchia, Master in Arts
(History of Art) Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, November 2011. [Download PDF 2.68MB]
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