Origins
Nonkululeko Pertunia Sibeko known to her family and close friends as Nkuly is a contemporary black female artist from Soweto, South Africa. Nkuly is the daughter of Peter Sibeko, an accomplished and widely collected South African fine artist who received local and international recognition for his notable contribution to South African and African cultural heritage, and exhibited in various galleries in Africa, Europe, USA, and Australia.
Nkuly started sketching from the age of nine and learned a lot from her father who helped her grow and find her own style. She worked in her father’s Soweto Art Gallery alongside other renowned artists, including David Mbhele, Solomon Skhawulelo, Blessing Ngobeni, Godfrey Ndaba and many more. Peter Sibeko’s gallery soon became the center for black artists and what became known as the Soweto school.
“What I liked about my father is that he never turned away an artist even when he didn’t like their work. He believed in each of them, and that someone out there will appreciate their art” remembers Nkuly.
Education, Awards
2012 Nkuly Sibeko graduated with a diploma in Business Management from Boston College. Her father unfortunately passed away in 2013 from leukemia, but Nkuly continued to work with the Soweto artists.
In 2019 she won the Residency award from Soweto Fine Art Gallery.
Themes
Nkuly Sibeko’s art talks about the violence against women and children, often represented by a ribbon in her artwork as a symbol for those who fight violence against women, and cancer. A survivor of domestic violence herself, painting makes her forget negative experiences and thoughts. With the bright color she uses she wishes to bring happiness to other people.
Freedom and dignity are what Nkuly aspires for everybody. She believes in the resilience of people to pick themselves up after a bad experience and support each other to learn from mistakes. Seeing herself as a Mbokodo (rock) as in the famous South African resistance song “you strike a woman you strike a rock”, Sibeko will continue telling the stories of women throughout the world and draw attention to the social issues affecting them.
Exhibitions
Group exhibitions
2021, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2020, Yebo Art Gallery, Eswatini
2020, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2013, Soweto Art Gallery, Soweto, South Africa
Solo exhibitions
2022 (March), Johannesburg Art Gallery
2020, AGOG Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
