19 articles
Bernard Takawira
Bernard Takawira (1948–1997) was a Zimbabwean stone sculptor from Nyanga, younger brother of John Takawira, and a leading first-generation figure of Zimbabwe's stone sculpture movement, winning Zimbabwe Heritage in 1988.
Bodys Isek Kingelez
Bodys Isek Kingelez (1948–2015) was a Congolese artist in Kinshasa who built utopian model cities from cardboard and plastic, gaining fame after the 1989 Paris exhibition Magiciens de la Terre.
El Anatsui
El Anatsui (born 1944) is a Ghanaian sculptor based in Nsukka, Nigeria, best known for large wall hangings assembled from thousands of folded aluminum liquor-bottle caps.
Elias Sime
Elias Sime (ኤልያስ ሲሜ, born 1968 in Addis Ababa) is an Ethiopian artist known for large-scale wall reliefs built from reclaimed electronic components, wires, and circuit boards.
Fanizani Akuda
Fanizani Akuda, also known as Fanizani Phiri, was a Zimbabwean Chewa stone sculptor of the first-generation Shona sculpture movement, known for smiling figures with slit eyes and whistler heads.
Helen Martins
Helen Martins (1897–1976) was a South African self-taught artist who, with craftsman Koos Malgas, transformed her Nieu-Bethesda home into the Owl House and Camel Yard, now a National Heritage Site.
Henry Munyaradzi
Henry Munyaradzi, also known as Henry Mudzengerere, was a self-taught Zimbabwean stone sculptor (1931–1998) who joined the Tengenenge community in 1967 and became a leading Shona sculpture figure.
Joram Mariga
Joram Mariga (1927–2000) was a Zimbabwean stone sculptor, widely regarded as the father of the Shona sculpture movement, who carved in Nyanga from the 1950s and mentored its first-generation artists.
Joseph Ndandarika
Joseph Ndandarika (1940–May 1991) was a Zimbabwean sculptor and painter counted among the First Generation of Shona stone sculptors, whose figurative work drew on Shona spiritual beliefs and everyday life.
Lamidi Fakeye
Lamidi Olonade Fakeye (1928–2009) was a Nigerian Yoruba woodcarver from Ila Orangun, known for carved doors, veranda posts, and figures across a 71-year career, including doors for the Kennedy Center.
Lucas Sithole
Lucas Sithole (1931–1994) was a South African sculptor best known for carving figures and animals in indigenous woods; he won the Venice Biennale sculpture prize in 1968.
Mahmoud Mokhtar
Mahmoud Mokhtar (محمود مختار, 1891–1934) was an Egyptian sculptor, the founding figure of modern Egyptian sculpture, best known for Nahdat Misr (Egypt's Awakening), unveiled in Cairo in 1928.
Mary Sibande
Mary Sibande, born 1982 in Barberton, South Africa, is a Johannesburg-based sculptor and installation artist known for Sophie, her life-size alter ego modeled on her own image.
Nicholas Mukomberanwa
Nicholas Mukomberanwa (1940–2002) was a Zimbabwean sculptor and art teacher, a leading first-generation figure of the Shona stone sculpture movement whose work is held in major collections.
Ousmane Sow
Ousmane Sow (1935–2016) was a Senegalese sculptor known for monumental figurative works celebrating African peoples; in 2013 he became the first Black member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Romuald Hazoumè
Romuald Hazoumè, born in 1962 in Porto-Novo, Benin, is a sculptor and installation artist best known for masks made from discarded plastic petrol cans; he won the Arnold Bode Prize at documenta 12 in 2007.
Sydney Kumalo
Sydney Kumalo, full name Sydney Alex Kumalo, was a South African sculptor and painter (1935 to 1988) whose cast bronze figures fused African and European modernist forms.
Sylvester Mubayi
Sylvester Mubayi (1942–2022) was a Zimbabwean Shona stone sculptor who began at the Tengenenge community and won international acclaim, including the 1969 Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Award.
Vincent Kofi
Vincent Akwete Kofi (1923–1974) was a Ghanaian modernist sculptor and art educator who worked in wood and bronze, fusing Ghanaian carving traditions with Pan-Africanist themes; critics called him West Africa's leading sculptor.