THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF BLACKNESS
EMERGING ARTIST FEATURE
Chuma Adam
CHUMA ADAM
ABOUT
b. 2001 - Johannesburg, RSA
Chuma Adam (b. 2001) is an emerging artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She is a multidisciplinary artist exploring painting, printmaking, textiles, sculpture, and drawing. Her bodies of work are primarily informed by a philosopher she greatly admires, Édouard Glissant, and his theory on opacity derived from his acclaimed book, Poetics of Relation.
Chuma’s works challenge themes of visibility, or lack thereof, as she dances around the complex tropes of Blackness and self-actualization in the realms of her Black identity. Chuma takes into great consideration her research which is led by prolific and pan-African writers, thinkers, and philosophers. Chuma mainly works through these thoughts, emotions, and conceptual
processes through the abstraction of the intangible complexities of navigating one’s self. In trying to disassemble the complexities of her Blackness and womanhood, Chuma introduces texture to her paintings by mixing sand and soil from her mother’s home into her earth-toned paintings and through repetitive mark making which functions as a form of documentation of her cosmic quest. Chuma does this in an attempt to excavate a multiplex of complex feelings, and ideologies surrounding Blackness and womanhood while paying homage to the genesis of African art. Chuma maintains and contains these intense feelings with her emotive, and sometimes controlled brushstrokes within these familiar and organic shapes, creating an immersive and introspective viewing experience.
Chuma has completed and graduated with a Honours degree in Fine Arts from the University of the Witwatersrand (2024) and was shortlisted for the WITS Young Artist Award (2022, 2023)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 The Body as a Site for Rest - Bubblegum Gallery, Johannesburg, RSA
2020 Uthethathethwano - Form Gallery, Cape Town, RSA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Modern Matriarchs - Windsor Gallery, Lagos, NIG
2023 Summer Salon - The Bag Factory, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 Intimate Histories - Latitudes Online, Johannesburg, RSA
2023 Dualities : Women’s Empowerment in Africa - Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, ENG
2023 Her Re-Collection - Undiscovered Canvas & Ville de Nice, Nice, FRA
2023 Not Black or White - SoShiro Gallery London, ENG
2022 Bad Posture - Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town, RSA
2022 Art on the Walls - Form Gallery, Cape Town, RSA
2021 A Crescendo of Day Dreams - FNB Open City, Johannesburg, RSA
2017 Sibylline - Gerard Sekoto Art Gallery, hosted by Alliance Francaise, Johannesburg, RSA
SELECTED ART FAIRS
RMB Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, RSA: 2023
FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, RSA: 2022
SELECTED AWARDS
Shortlisted for the WITS Young Artist Award: 2023 / 2022
Untitled; otherwise Blackness as self-actualization (The Communion V), 2024
Acrylic paint on canvas
480 x 430 mm
Price on request
CHUMA ADAM
We Feel The Same Grief, We Feel The Same Love,2024
River sand and acrylic paint on canvas
600 x 550 mm
Price on request
CHUMA ADAM
Untitled; otherwise Blackness as self-actualization (Attendance), 2024
Acrylic paint on Fabriano paper
1000 x 660 mm
Price on request
CHUMA ADAM
Untitled; otherwise Blackness as self-actualization (The Communion III), 2024
Acrylic paint on canvas
1150 x 750 mm
Price on request
CHUMA ADAM
kalashnikovv gallery
72 6th Street
Parkhurst Randburg South Africa
www.kalashnikovv.com @kalashnikovvgallery info@kalashnikovv.com
Matthew Dean Dowdle - Co-director
(+27) 083 781 7406
matthew@kalashnikovv.com
MJ Turpin - Co-director
(+27) 073 124 8183
mj@kalashnikovv.com
Zanele Kumalo - Associate director
(+27) 083 381 8746 zanele@kalashnikovv.com
