Artist Esther Mahlangu to debut new work at SCOPE Art Show’s 2024 Miami edition

November 12, 2024

Dr. Mahlangu has been creating tradition-inspired contemporary art for 70 years. Photo by Clint Strydom, courtesy of SCOPE Art Show

By Lisa Powers

World-renowned South African artist Dr. Esther Mahlangu will unveil a monumental new piece at this year’s SCOPE Art Show in Miami Beach, running Dec. 3 to 8, 2024.

The work, on view SCOPE’s iconic pavilion on Ocean Drive, will continue the career-spanning theme of peace found in Dr. Mahlangu’s paintings, which are rooted in traditional Ndebele designs.

"When you view one of my paintings, it's not so much a message that I am aiming to convey but rather a feeling of peace, balance, and harmony,” Dr. Mahlangu said, in a statement.

Portrait of the artist

Dr. Mahlangu’s work fits right in at SCOPE, which has been the premier showcase for emerging and outsider contemporary artists and galleries since 2001. Its flagship annual show takes place during Miami Art Week.

The artist grew up the oldest of nine siblings on a family farm outside of Middelburg, South Africa, as part of the Ndebele nation.

She learned Ndebele mural painting – a tradition in which the women of a family paint the outside of their homes with colorful, abstract designs created using “sacred geometry” and feather brushes – from her grandmother and mother in 1945, when she was 10 years old.

Although she had no formal education, Dr. Mahlangu took to painting and worked to perfect her adopted craft, eventually expanding from the customary buildings to canvases and found objects.

Decades later, after her work appeared in a 1989 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Dr. Mahlangu skyrocketed into the public consciousness.

Now, her pieces are held by prominent museums and in private collections around the world. She has received three honorary doctorates and has become a cultural and artistic icon.

She was the first woman and African artist to paint a BMW Art Car in 1991, and in October 2024, BMW honored her artistic oeuvre as part of its Frieze London programming. Concurrently, she unveiled a site-specific mural at London’s Serpentine, with the institution calling her “one of the most important artists of our time.”

Over her 70-year career, Dr. Mahlangu has created a treasure trove of work that blends her Ndebele heritage and traditional culture into visually captivating, contemporary pieces that speak to a global audience, with the message of peace that defines her practice transcending geographic barriers.

"Ukuthula Makube Nawe (Peace Be With You)" will be on view at SCOPE in December. Image courtesy of SCOPE Art Show

Broad brush strokes

Her latest painting, “Ukuthula Makube Nawe (Peace Be With You),” will be seen for the first time at SCOPE. The work will debut as part of The New Contemporary, SCOPE’s curated, multidisciplinary platform for large-scale exhibitions, installations and dynamic programming.

A bold, large-scale example of her signature abstract, geometric shapes in vibrant colors, the painting is a full eight meters (26 feet) long and two meters (6.5 feet) high in acrylic on canvas.

The harmony of color and composition in the monumental work is meant to evoke a feeling of calm and balance, which is central to her practice. Dr. Mahlangu hopes SCOPE visitors will pause, reflect and feel peace when experiencing the painting, particularly at this global moment.

The 89-year-old has had a busy 2024, starting with a career retrospective at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town, set to tour international museums at its close, and a solo exhibition at 1-54 New York.

Just last week, she had her first U.S. book launch for “To Paint is in My Heart,” a series of interviews, at Soho House Miami.

The artist’s work will return to Miami in December during Miami Art Week, where her new painting will appear alongside a solo booth with The Melrose Gallery, her exclusive global representative in Johannesburg, at SCOPE. Her work will also be on view at Art Basel.

To see Esther Mahlangu’s “Ukuthula Makube Nawe” in person at SCOPE Art Show in Miami, set for Dec. 3-8, 2024, purchase tickets here.

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Artist Esther Mahlangu to debut new work at SCOPE Art Show’s 2024 Miami edition

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