SHAMIL   BALRAM

Artist Statement

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Shamil Balram work deals with questions of race, identity, sexuality, hyper-consumerism, and ongoing of problematic and racialized representation of black lives in popular culture. Looking at MohauModisakeng (1986), Dineo Bopape(1981) and Kemang Wa Lehulere(1984) questions who all shine a light on the complexity of black lives in the present moment. His work is underpinned by an investigation of selected contemporary artists who all deal with the ongoing legacies of violence and the vulnerability of black life as a consequence of racial slavery, colonialism and apartheid which continue to mark South African people’s lives in the present moment. Balram practical work draws on both 2-dimensional  and 3-dimensional production using the traditions of painting and drawing in the only way to express the complexity around the vulnerability of black lives and it is through this exploration of mediums that he intend creating a broad range of works that speak to the struggles of black people. My theoretical framework draws on a radical black theoretical tradition specifically looking at the work of Stephen Bantu Biko to Joel Modiri, in order to think about the complex histories of colonialism and apartheid which underpin the contemporary moment. Balram intends to situate his work to speaking alongside these theorists, and artists which he identifies. Balram furthermore intends to open up a platform for a conversation where a nuanced conversation around these hard questions, which continue to plague black lives, can be hosted.

 

 

Biography

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Shamil Balram was born in 1994, Western Cape and lives in Durban. Balram is currently doing his final year of an undergraduate in Fine Arts at the Durban University of Technology. Having grown up by multi-racial

parents during an iconic moment in which South Africa emergence from Apartheid to a new period called Democracy. Throughout his life, Shamil has always been inspired by his trajectories, movements, and spaces of his life as a point of departure for engaging and responding to the world through his artistic practice. The realms of the personal, subjective, as well as questions of history, memory, and space, are always part of his interest and work.

 

Curriculum Vitae

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Education

Diploma in Fine Art, Durban University of Technology (2016-2018)

Secondary education at Temple Valley Secondary, Matriculation, Bachelor’s

Pass (2013)

 

Selected Exhibitions

2018 University of Fujian Art gallery, China, Exchange Program (Group Exhibition)

2017 SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, Peer (Group Exhibition)

2017 Essence Art Festival, Durban, Exhibited work

2016 African Art Centre Exhibition, Durban, Exhibited work (Group Exhibition)

2016 Essence Art Festival, Durban, Exhibited work

2016 Art Space, Durban, Exhibited work (Group Exhibition)

2016 Museum of Pretoria, Pretoria, Top 100 Sasol New

Signatures Artist (Group Exhibition)

 

Awards & Work Experience

Internship, Art for Humanities, Current, DUT, 2018

Assistant Curator, KZNSA Membership, 2017

Top 100 South African Artists, SASOL New Signatures, 2016