Staff

Mr. David Andrew - Senior Lecturer (Joint Head of Division)

David Andrew studied at the University of Natal, Pietermarizburg (B A Fine Arts 1985) and at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (H Dip Ed (PG) 1986; PhD 2011). His interest in the artist-teacher relationship has resulted in a number of projects aimed at researching, designing and implementing alternative paths for the training of arts educators and artists working in schools. In the period 2003 to 2008 he jointly co-ordinated the Curriculum Development Project Trust/Wits School of Arts partnership that developed the Advanced Certificate in Education (Arts and Culture) and the Artists in Schools and Community Art Centre programmes. Current research interests include the tracking of histories of arts education in South Africa and southern Africa more broadly; a collaborative project mapping arts education policies and practices across the African continent; and a further collaborative project initiated by the Institute for Art Education, Zurich University of the Arts, that critiques the UNESCO Roadmap for Arts Education.

Since 2000 he has been involved in numerous tertiary level arts education initiatives including international partnerships with the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, Sweden. He is also the WSOA co-ordinator for the Master of Arts in the Public Sphere (MAPS) programme which includes partnerships with a number of European art schools.

He has published visual literacy and arts education related articles in the journals Visual Communication (with Joni Brenner, 2004, and Marcus Neustetter, 2008), Assessment in Education (with members of the Wits Multiliteracies group, 2003) and English Studies in Africa (with Joni Brenner, 2007).

In 2004 he was appointed to the editorial board of the International Journal of Education Through Art (IJETA). He is also a member of the International Society for Education Through Art (INSEA) and has presented at numerous conferences including the InSEA congresses in Osaka, Japan (August 2008) and Budapest, Hungary (July 2011).

Mr. Walter Oltmann - Senior Lecturer (Joint Head of Division)

Walter Oltmann was born in Rustenburg and studied at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (B.A.Fine Arts 1981), and at the University of the Witwatersrand (M.A.Fine Arts 1985).  He has taught in the Fine Arts division at Wits University since 1989.  Walter’s main area of creative focus is in sculpture and drawing and in his own sculptural work he fabricates wire forms by hand (mostly weaving in aluminium wire) which sometimes reference local craft traditions.  He has researched and written on the use of wire in African material culture in this region and is deeply interested in the influence of these traditions in contemporary South African Art.  His drawings are also based on and explore similar references.  Using the language of craft, his artworks are always products of labour and time.  He is represented by the Goodman Gallery and exhibits regularly while also frequently working on sculpture commissions.

Professor Jeremy Wafer - Associate Professor

 Jeremy Wafer was born in Durban in 1953 and studied at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (B.A.F.A.1979) and at the University of the Witwatersrand (B.A. Hons. in Art History 1980 and M.A. Fine Art 1987). He has taught since 1982 in the Fine Art Departments of the Technikon Natal and the Technikon Witwatersrand before being appointed Associate Professor in the School of Arts of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg from 2004 where he was Head of the Department of Fine Art and History of Art until 2010. He has exhibited regularly in South Africa and abroad, has won a number of prizes including the Sasol Wax Award and has been selected for international fellowships including the Civitella Ranieri and the Ampersand. His work is represented in the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, the South African National Gallery, the Johannesburg Art Gallery and in many other museums and private and corporate collections.

Room 133a

Tel: 011 717 4622

Email:

 jeremy.wafer@wits.ac.za

Professor Raimi Gbadamosi – Associate Professor

Raimi Gbadamosi is an artist, writer and curator. He received his Doctorate in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art, London. He is a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group 'Afroeuropeans', University of Leon, Spain, and the 'Black Body' group, Goldsmiths College, London. He is on the Editorial board of Third Text, and the boards of Elastic Residence, London, and Relational, Bristol

Recent national and international shows and events include:   Banquet, South Hill Park Bracknell, United Kingdom, 2011; Exchange Mechanism, Belfast Exposed, Northern Ireland, 2010; Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Galleri Garaget Sweden, 2009; Solo, CAF, Alexandria, Egypt, 2009; ARCO Madrid 2009; Tentativa De Agotar Un Lugar Africano, CASM, Barcelona 2008; Human Cargo, Plymouth Museum & Art Gallery, Plymouth 2007; Port City, Arnolfini, Bristol 2007. ARCO 2009, Madrid/. Work media including multiples, music, websites, writing and audience participation. Works creates debate, instead of representing preconceived concerns defined by specific social, cultural and political cant.

Books include: incredulous; ordinary people; extraordinary people; contents; Drink Horizontal; Drink Vertical; The Dreamers' Perambulator; and four word.

Recent publication contributions Include: Representing Enslavement and Abolition on Museums, Routledge 2011; Black British Perspectives, Sable, 2011.

Recent essays include: What Is This Afroeuropean?, Book Chapter; Scuffles in the Cathedral: Of Principalities and Powers, Tate Encounters; Dancing In A Space Provided, Or Running Amok, Tate Liverpool; Imagination Hits Reality: Visualising the Self in Imoinda, Goldsmiths College, London. The Not-So New Europeans, Wasafiri UK and The Delight of Giant-Slayers: Or Can Artists Commit Their Lives to Paper?, ArtMonitor, Sweden.

Become a citizen at The Republic. http://www.the-republic.net

Room 133A

Tel: 011 717 4622

 Email:
raimi.gbadamosi@wits.ac.za

Professor Karel Nel - Associate Professor

Karel Nel is an Associate Professor in the Division of Visual Arts at the Wits School of Arts. He has taught fine arts in the division since the early 80s. Nel is a respected collector of African, Asian and Oceanic art with a particular interest in currencies. Southern African material is his area of expertise, and he acts as an advisor to a number of national and international museums on their collections of African art. He has also been part of curatorial teams for major international exhibitions on early Zulu, Tsonga and Shang n art, and has contributed to numerous publications on this material. He is interested in early Modernism in South Africa with a particular focus on Preller, Battiss, Villa and the Amadlozi Group. Karel Nel is a practising artist who exhibits regularly and is represented in many museums. He is well known for large public commissions at home and abroad. He has over many years been interested in the interface between art and science and this ongoing investigation has led to his inclusion as artist-in-residence in the COSMOS project, one of the most comprehensive astronomy projects ever undertaken. The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) is a project that is involved in mapping galaxies and clusters of galaxies in a two-degree square area of the sky.

For nearly three decades, Jo’s photographs have reflected her ongoing preoccupation with the South African landscape and the ways in which it figures in the country’s imaginary – particularly, the violent legacies of apartheid. Her photographs frequently portray the ‘after-event’; spaces discharged of their human subjects, haunted by the presence of the past. In so doing, she draws our attention to the absent and unseen, alluding to the traces of meaning beyond the evidentiary. Most recently, she has turned her attention to the aftermath of the war in Angola.

Recent exhibitions include: Topographies de la Guerre, Le Bal, Paris (2011); Appropriated Landscapes, Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen (2011); Points of View, Rencontres D’Arles Photography Festival (2011); Impressions from South Africa, 1965 to Now, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2011);  Figures and Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography, V&A Museum, London (2011); As Terras do Fim do Mundo (solo show) Michael Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town (2010); Events of the Self: Portraiture and Social Identity, Walther Collection, Neu-Ulm/Burlafingen (2010); Terreno Ocupado (solo show) Warren Siebrits Gallery, Johannesburg, (2008); Annual Report, Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2008); Snap Judgements: New Positions in Contemporary African Photography, International Centre for Photography, New York (2006); The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in Global Society, Seville Biennial, Spain (2006).

Recent Books include: As Terras do Fim do Mundo (Cape Town: Michael Stevenson, 2010); Terreno Ocupado (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2008); Johannesburg Circa Now: Photography and the City (Johannesburg: Terry Kurgan & Jo Ractliffe, 2005); Jo Ractliffe: Selected Colour Works 1999 – 2005 (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2005); Jo Ractliffe: Selected Works 1982 – 1999 (Johannesburg: Warren Siebrits, 2004)

Ms Natasha Christopher - Senior Tutor

Natasha Christopher is an artist working in photography. She holds an MA(FA) from Wits (2007) and completed her undergraduate studies, majoring in sculpture,  at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town (1991). Natasha teaches photography and runs the third year Design and Drawing program in the Division. In 2008-2009 she ran the Beyond the line drawing project which explored contemporary and historical dimensions of drawing and edited the Beyond the Line Catalogue. She has won a number of awards including The Everard Read Art Award and three ABSA Atelier Merit Awards.  Solo exhibitions include Mine (2010) Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg; “It’s your picture, but my image” (2005) at the Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg; and River (2004) at the Sub-Station Gallery, Wits University. She is currently involved in PLAY|URBAN, a joint research project between the ESADS -École Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs / Strasbourg, the Wits School of Arts, and VANSA the Visual Arts Network of South Africa.

Mr Thembinkosi Goniwe - Lecturer

 Thembinkosi Goniwe is an artist, writer and curator who lectures in the Fine Arts and History of Arts Divisions at the Wits School of Arts. Goniwe holds a Masters of Fine Art degree (1999) from the University of Cape Town, where he also taught (1998-2000). He has taken up art residencies, participated in conferences and exhibitions nationally and internationally.

Ms Donna Kukama – Lecturer

Donna Kukama is a multimedia artist working in performance, video, text, and sound installations. She completed her postgraduate studies at the Ecole Cantonale d’art du Valais in Sierre (Switzerland) in 2008, under MAPS (Masters of Art in the Public Sphere). Kukama has participated and performed in various local and international exhibitions and Art Fairs, including the Joburg Art Fair in 2009, Art Miami 2009, ARCO Madrid 2010, and FOCUS11 in Basel.  She has been nominated for various art awards including the MTN New Contemporaries Award (SA) in 2010, as well as the Ernst Schering Award (Ger) in 2011. Together with Kemang Wa Lehulere, she co-founded the Johannesburg-based NON- NON Collective in 2010, and received a nomination for the Visible Award (IT) in 2011. She is a creative researcher amongst a group of artists, curators, researchers, and writers at the Center for Historical Reenactments, founded by Gabi Ngcobo in 2010. Kukama has lectured at the Tshwane University of Technology (2005), and is currently a faculty member at the Wits School of Arts

]www.donnakukama.com

 Mr. Zen Marie - Lecturer

Zen Marie was born in Durban South Africa, in 1980. He studied photography at the Market Photo Workshop in 1995 and thereafter completed a BAFA degree (with distinction) majoring in sculpture, at the University of Cape Town in 2001. Alongside this artistic training, Marie went on to pursue two post graduate studies: a two year studio residency at de-ateliers  in Amsterdam and a Masters degree at the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, based at the University of Amsterdam where he graduated in 2006 (also with distinction). Marie exhibits locally and internationally and recently won one of the top awards at Spier Contemporary 2010.

web:
Www.zenmarie.com
Www.dakarapide.tumblr.com
Www.autoraj.tumblr.com

Ms Gabi Ngcobo – Lecturer

Gabi Ngcobo is an independent curator and the co-founder of the Johannesburg based independent collective platform, the Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR). She holds a Masters degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (New York) and is a faculty member at the Wits School of Arts, University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Recently Ngcobo curated “DON’T/PANIC” an exhibition which took place at the Durban Art Gallery and coincided with COP17, the United Nations conference on Climate Change. Commissioned by the Goethe Institut, the exhibition featured 27 artists and contributors. Other curatorial projects include collaborative and individual projects: Second to None at the South African National Gallery, Olvida quen soy/ Erase me from who I am at CAAM, Canary Islands, 2006, CAPE 07 in different venues in Cape Town, 2007, Titled/Untitled, a curatorial collaboration with Gugulective collective and Scratching the Surface Vol.1 at the AVA Gallery, Cape Town. In 2010 Ngcobo co-curated Rope-a-dope: to win a losing war at Cabinet, New York, Second Coming, a curatorial collaboration at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College and Just How Cold Was It?’ At ‘6-8 Months’ project space, New York City.  At CHR she curated PASS-AGES: references & footnotes at the old Pass Office and an ongoing project titled Xenoglossia, a research project. Ngcobo has given talks and lectures at various places, including “The Names We Give” at the Michaelis School of Arts, “Other Possible Worlds” at NGBK, Berlin, “The Now Museum” at the New Museum, New York, “Condition Report” at Raw Material, Dakar, “What Does an Art Institution do: How Size Matters?” at Tensta Kosnthall, Stockholm and “The Radius of Art” at the Heinrich Boell Foundation, Berlin. 

Born in 1975 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Frances Goodman studied Fine Art at the
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She then moved to London to join the MA course at Goldsmiths College, graduating in 2000. From 2001 to 2003 she lived in Antwerp where she was artist in residence at HISK, Higher Institute for Fine Art. She has had numerous solo exhibitions in South Africa and has participated in major international shows such as Sphères at Le Moulin, France in 2009 and Lust and Vice: From Durer to Nauman at the Kunstmuseum Bern in 2010.   http://www.francesgoodman.com/

Dorothee Kreutzfeldt is an artist whose work over the last years has largely been defined by collaborations, often within specific urban contexts. Recent exhibitions include Rencontres PICHA – Biennale de Lumumbashi, Afropolis, in collaboration with Bettina Malcomess, at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne (2010), REFLEX/REFLEJO at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in collaboration with Marta Fernandez Calvo (2010); and also at the Temporaere Kunsthalle, Berlin in collaboration with Bettina Malcomess(2009); PROG in Bern, Switzerland (in collaboration with Visthois Mwilambwe, Kura Shomali, Raphael Urweider, Steffi Weissman, Athi Patra Ruga and Anthea Moys (2007). She had also produced solo exhibitions like the The Immanent Inauguration of the 5th Corner at the Blank Projects, Cape Town (2010) and The Virgins Are All Trimming Their Wicks at Joao Ferreira Fine Art, Cape Town (2007). Kreutzfeldt completed her MFA at the WITS School of Arts in 2004. She co-founded the Joubert Park Project in 2000, a non-profit group that set up a range of projects in inner city Johannesburg, including the development of the historic Drill Hall into a multi-use, public heritage site and cultural platform.

Ms Bettina Malcomess – Sessional Staff Lecturer

Bettina Malcomess works across disciplines as a writer, curator and artist. She lives between the cities of Johannesburg and Cape Town, teaching at several institutions and across the disciplines of art, design and architecture. She is currently running the Honours Theory program at Wits School of the Arts (Johannesburg). She also teaches at the Michaelis Schools of Fine Art and UCT School of Architecture in Cape Town. Her work is performative, interdisciplinary and collaborative, engaging with public space and site-specificity. In 2010 working with architects and artists, Malcomess produced the ‘Millennium Bar’, a temporary installation in public sites that interacted with the Soccer World Cup. She co-curated the group show ‘Us’ with Simon Njami at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (2009), and ‘Us- part II’ at the South African National Gallery (2010). She has worked on several collaborative, curatorial and developmental projects with the Joubert Park Project, based at the Drill Hall in inner city Johannesburg, setting up the Keleketla! Library with Ra Hlasane at the Drill Hall. Malcomess is a member of the collective Doing it for Daddy (winners of Spier Contemporary Art Award in 2007). Malcomess has written for several artist catalogues, as well as consistently for South African art publications, including Sue Williamson’s South African Art Now. In 2010 she was awarded a joint fellowship with performance artist Peter Van Heerden at the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (Cape Town). They produced a site-specific performance titled ‘Monument’ at the Castle of Good Hope. Malcomess works in performance under the name Anne Historical.

Mr Juan Orrantia – Post-doctoral Fellow

JUAN ORRANTIA   (b. bogota, colombia) works on nonfiction projects that explore the evocative and critical possibilities of photography and multimedia. his photographic series also rely on sound, text and diary narratives, addressing questions of memory, violence, intimacy, and the everyday.

AWARDS  include the Tierney fellowship in photography as well as various grants and residencies at research institutes. he has exhibited in South Africa and Colombia, and participated in various group shows including the New York Photo Festival, Bonani Africa Festival of Photography, and Ethnographic Terminalia (New Orleans).

EDUCATION.   his background is in cultural and visual anthropology (Yale),  documentary studies from the Center for Documentary Studies (CDS), and  has also participated in various workshops and courses at the International Center of Photography (ICP).

Niall Bingham completed a BAVA (Hons) at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in 2005. In 2004 he spent a year on an exchange programme at Kansai Gaidai University in Hirakata, Japan.  He moved to Johannesburg in 2006 and joined the Printmaking Workshop at the David Krut Arts Resource.  He worked with, and editioned for artists such as William Kentridge, Diane Victor, Deborah Bell, Willem Boshoff, Ryan Arenson, David Koloane, Paul Stopforth and many others.  After five years of collaborating with artists he accepted a position as the Printmaking Workshop Technician at WITS School of Arts where he continues to facilitate printmaking.  Niall is also a practicing artist in his own right.

Ms Naadira Patel – Exhibitions Curator /Co-oridinator

Naadira Patel is a Johannesburg based artist and curator whose work crosses between the mediums of painting, photography and video. She completed her undergraduate BA Fine Arts Degree at the Wits School of Arts in 2010, and is currently the assistant curator and exhibitions coordinator in the Division of Visual Arts. Naadira manages the Substation gallery space and co-curator of The Substation Residency: Dislocating the Studio. She has worked as a project manager and curatorial assistant on numerous projects, including the Joburg Art Fair in 2009 and 2010, Brodie Stevenson JHB in 2010 and Wide Angle: Photography as Public Practice in 2011.

I am a self-taught Photographer born in Johannesburg. I moved to New York in 2008 where I received my Masters in Digital Photography from the School of Visual Arts, NYC. I have been working as a fashion and art photographer in the city since then. I moved back to South Africa last year. My areas of expertise include Portraiture, Retouching, Digital Compositing, Lighting and Digital Printing. My interests outside Photography include Physics, Mathematics as well as programming and web-development.

Mr Leonard Russell - Workshop Manager

Leonard Russel was born in Johannesburg 1953. He trained as Civil Engineering Technician at Witwatersrand Technikon 1975-1978 and worked as Civil and Architectural Draughtsman until 1991 while spending free time following interest in arts and crafts. He managed the Concrete Laboratory at the Civil Engineering Department of University of  Witwatersrand from 1995-1998 before moving to his current position as Senior Technician at the Department of Fine Arts at Wits University.  Russell has had an ongoing engagement with art and crafts production and assisting artists realise their work.

Ms Modiegi Matilda Nong – Administrative Secretary

Matilda Nong began her career at Wits working in the Social Anthropology department in 1997 and has been Administrative Secretary at Wits School of Arts since 2002.  Matilda is secretary to the Division of Visual Arts, and to Heritage Studies.

Tel. 011 7174654

Email :modiegi.nong@wits.ac.za

Mr Vincent Baloyi – Technical assistant