Wezile Harmans (b. 1990; Port Elizabeth, South Africa) is an interdisciplinary mixed-media artist who leverages the mediums of performance, video art, installation, and painting to highlight issues pertaining to social justice and inequalities. Deeply rooted in theories attached to defamiliarisation, human behaviour, and symbolism, Harmans’ practice is a witness to the act of creation. Materialised through his observation of unwelcoming spaces, prejudices, and critical self-reflexivity. A visual activist against social inequalities, Harmans’ contributions to performance in South Africa have been recognised by institutions such as the Iziko South African National Gallery, Norval Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and many local art fairs and galleries across the country.
In 2022, Harmans was awarded the Best Visual Art Award in Creative Collection from the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences for his work on a project entitled Umdiyadiya. He was also the recipient of the 2019 David Koloane Award and the Prince Claus Fund Building Beyond Award (2022). Since then, his works have been presented at many global artistic hubs, including Hangar and several art residencies across South Africa, Germany, Madagascar and Sweden.
Selected solo exhibitions include Locating Spaces of Urgency. Chapter I: Endlovini at WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town (2024); South Africa Unrooted at Vilsmeier-Linhares collection in Munich, Germany (2024); as well as Umdiyadiya: When we remember at Uppsala Art Museum in Sweden (2024), among others. Selected group exhibitions include Future Worldings at Griffin Art Projects in Vancouver, Canada (2024); and In transit under another sky at Kemene Cultural Center in Nairobi, Kenya (2024).
