Artist in Residence
Lungiswa Gqunta is a multidisciplinary artist working in performance, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. She holds a BA from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and an MFA from the Michaelis School of Fine Arts in Cape Town, South Africa. Gqunta is a founding member of iQhiya Collective, a network of young Black female artists based in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
Gqunta’s practice aims to deconstruct spatial modes of exclusion and oppression by addressing the access to and ownership of land, persistent social imbalances, and legacies of patriarchal dominance and colonialism. She explores how segregation and inequality are inscribed into spaces like public parks, suburban lawns, or botanical gardens. Gqunta’s multisensory installations often activate the senses through the scent of burning plants or petrol. A review of her immersive gardens, composed of razor wire and found objects, by Nkgopoleng Moloi in Art in America notes that “Her choice to highlight the dismal nature of her material surroundings only emphasizes the appeal of the alternative spiritual realms she conjures alongside them.”