Gabi Ngcobo

Since the early 2000s Gabi Ngcobo, born 1974, has been engaged in collaborative artistic, curatorial, and educational projects in South Africa and on an international scope. She is a founding member of the Johannesburg/South Africa based collaborative platforms NGO – Nothing Gets Organised and Center for Historical Reenactments (CHR, 2010–14). NGO focusses on processes of self-organization that take place outside of predetermined structures, definitions, contexts, or forms. The CHR responded to the demands of the moment through an exploration of how historical legacies impact and resonate within contemporary art.

Ngcobo curated the 10th Berlin Biennale (2018). She co-curated the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2016), which took place at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion in São Paulo/Brazil, and A Labour of Love (2015) at Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt am Main/Germany. In Cape Town/South Africa, she has worked at the Iziko South African National Gallery and at the Cape Africa Platform where she co-curated the Cape’07 Biennial in 2007. In the past, she has collaborated with various institutions including Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria/Spain; Durban Art Gallery, South Africa; Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg; Johannesburg Workshop in Theory and Criticism (JWTC), Johannesburg; LUMA/Westbau, Pool, Zurich/Switzerland; New Museum, Museum as Hub, New York/USA; and Raw Material Company, Dakar/Senegal, among others. She has been teaching at the Wits School of Arts, University of Witswatersrand in South Africa since 2011. Her writings have been published in various catalogues, books, and journals.

Gabi Ngcobo lives and works in Johannesburg.