Princia Matungulu

DRC/South Africa

About the Artist

Born in Democratic Republic of Congo (1999), Princia Matungulu is a Johannesburg-based artist who graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) degree. Being a Congolese born immigrant navigating the South African cultural landscape, she draws from her background and identity through shared processes and conversations with her mother.

Matungulu’s practice is a combination of weaving, sculpture and storytelling. Her approach to the materiality, the intricacy of the weaving process and the resulting sculptures are a record of personal and imagined histories. She employs weaving processes as a means of understanding Congolese traditions, norms and values of ‘proper’ womanhood, which sometimes overlap and intersect with those of women from the African diaspora. Her work explores themes such as intimacy, sacredness, dress and labour.

Matungulu was awarded the Young Womxn Studio Bursary for 2021-2022 at the Bag factory Artists’ Studios, and held her joint exhibition with Kutlwano Monyai, Botsalano le Megopolo: Ennous entre nous, from August to September 2022. She participated and was a finalist in the Wits Young Artist Award (2021), and exhibited at The Point of Order in a joint exhibition in partial fulfilment of her degree (2021). She has also nexhibited work at the Holy Art Gallery in London, UK (2020), and her series of work Nouveaux Mémoire Vieux Pagne (New Memory Old Cloth) was part of the group exhibition Archive of Forgetfulness at the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2020).

Explore Matungulu’s catalogue for the Investec Cape Town Art Fair 2024.

Exhibitions

  • 2024 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, with Guns & Rain
  • 2024 Soft Power, Too, group exhibition at Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
  • 2024 DECADE : 10 Years of Guns & Rain (group exhibition), Johannesburg
  • 2024 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Guns & Rain
  • 2023 You’re a Bird, Sing a Song, Duo exhibition at Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
  • 2022 Megopolo le Botsalano: En nous, entre nous, Joint exhibition in completion of artist residency at Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, Johannesburg
  • 2022 Turbine Art Fair, Exhibited work with Forms Gallery, Oxford Parks, Rosebank
  • 2021 Wits Young Artist Award, Finalist & Participant The Point Of Order, Johannesburg
  • 2020 Archive of forgetfulness, Inaugural group exhibition Goethe Institute SA, Johannesburg

Grants, Residencies and Awards

  • 2021-2022 Young Womxn Studio Bursary at Bag Factory Artist Studios, Johannesburg
  • 2021 Wits Young Artist Award (finalist)

Selected Works

For Chicoanga

2023
African wax print, thread and glue
188 x 175 cm

Mke mwenye wivu I (The Jealous wife I)

2024
African wax print, polyester, thread and glue
70.5 x 61 cm

Uko ndege, Imba mwimbo (You’re a bird, sing a song)

2022
African wax print fabric, thread and glue
136 x 190 x 24 cm

Mdomo wa manjano: Mpito III (Yellow Beak: transition II)

2023
African wax fabric, cotton thread and glue
66 x 41 cm

Kupita kwenye milima (Passage through the mountains)

2023
African wax print fabric, cotton thread and glue
155.5 x 77 cm

Ninachofanya, Ninachosema, Mimi ni nini (What I do, What I say, Who am I?)

2022
African wax print, thread and wood glue
145 x 252 x 8 cm

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