Tšhegofatšo Mabaso is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Iziko South African National Gallery.
Ms Mabaso holds a BA in Fine Art and a Master’s Degree in Art History. In her practice, she is interested in experimental approaches to knowledge production, exploring new curatorial methods and imagining new forms, whether for exhibitions, collections or institutions. Collaboration influences her thinking, drawing on the wealth of knowledge and approaches collectives have offered us historically. Notable recent projects include The Art of Lithography: A Collaborative Expression of LL Editions (2018) at the Wits Art Museum; Minding Our Business (2018/2019) in collaboration with the Visual Arts Network of South Africa (VANSA); and And Counting (2019) at the Johannesburg Art Gallery.
At the South African National Gallery, Ms Mabaso undertakes research relating to contemporary artistic practices and oversees the collection of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture.
Ms Mabaso’s work draws extensively on ideas of collaboration evident in the practices of artist collectives historically. Her Master’s thesis The Curatorial: An Analysis of Xenoglossia, a Research Project (2011), and Featuring Simplicity as an Irrational Fear (2010), interrogates the conditions under which curatorial practices developed in South Africa in the early 2000s and the impact of collaborative creative methodologies on these practices.
She is currently exploring the practice of experimental collaborative ways of working in institutional contexts and as a framework through which to work with collections.
