"Art21 proudly presents an artist segment, featuring Nicholas Hlobo, from the ""Johannesburg"" episode in the ninth season of the ""Art in the Twenty-First Century"" series.

""Johannesburg"" premiered in September 2018 on PBS. Watch now on PBS and the PBS Video app: https://www.pbs.org/video/san-francisco-bay-area-myw92l/

Nicholas Hlobo’s gorgeously handcrafted paintings, sculptures, and performances utilize leather, ribbon, and rubber to quietly and subversively examine his sexuality, masculinity, and Xhosa heritage within South African culture. Shopping for materials at a local Johannesburg leather shop and working in his studio (a former synagogue), Hlobo weaves together symbolic bodily innuendos and historical references in his work, examining and exposing the challenges of the country’s young democracy. Hlobo brings one of his performances to a renovated church in Harlem, New York City, to investigate the history of missionaries in South Africa and the more subtle ways that bodies are colonized today.

Nicholas Hlobo was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1975 and grew up in Transkei, South Africa. His works on paper, sculptures, installations, and performances utilize rubber, ribbon, leather, and a variety of domestic objects to explore both his identity as a gay Xhosa man and issues of masculinity, sexuality, and ethnicity in South African culture.

Learn more about the artist at:
https://art21.org/artist/nicholas-hlobo/

CREDITS | Executive Producer: Tina Kukielski. Series Producer: Nick Ravich. Director & Producer: Christine Turner. Editor: Mary Ann Toman. Director of Photography: Tyler McPherron.

Field Producer: Laura Wagner. Production Coordinator: Ife Adelona. Curatorial Assistant: Danielle Brock. Advising Producer: Ian Forster.

Title Sequence & Typography: Afternoon Inc. Composer: Joel Pickard. Narration: Carrie Mae Weems. Additional Photography: Luca Bragagnolo, Ethan Indorf, Larry Rochfort, & Marshall Stief. Assistant Camera: Lawrence Abad, Lance Canilao, Erika Houle, Luke Lasley, Michael Lindemuth, Ines Portugal, & Dean Snodgrass. Grip: Hunter Huston. Sound: Kevin Crawford, Trokan Nagabe, & Ty Peterson. Production Associate: Trinity West. Production Assistant: Dolan Chorng. Production Intern: Alexis Salmons.

Digital Intermediate: Blue Table Post. Post-Production Producer: Oliver Lief. Colorist: Natacha Ikoli. Re-Recording Mixer & Dialogue Editor: Rich Cutler. Additional Animation: Andy Cahill & Grace Mendenhall. Assistant Editor: Caroline Berler, Adam Boese, Maya Elany, & Jonah Greenstein. Technical Evaluation: Pillar To Post.

Creative Growth Art Center Artists: Rosena Finister, Jackie Frank, Dan Miller, Judith Scott, William Scott, & Monica Valentine. Artwork Courtesy: Creative Growth Art Center, Katy Grannan, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Stephanie Syjuco, Andrew Edlin Gallery, Anglim Gilbert Gallery, Bridget Donahue, Catherine Clark Gallery, Fraenkel Gallery, Ryan Lee, & Waldburger Wouters. Archival Materials: Shane Bauer; California Academy of Sciences; Katy Grannan photographs installed at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA; Library of Congress; “Outsider: The Life & Art of Judith Scott” by Betsy Bayha, Courtesy of Icarus Films; Prelinger Archives and the Internet Archive; Yerba Buena Center for the Arts; & ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Additional Music: Kevin MacLeod.

Additional Art21 Staff: Maggie Albert, Lindsey Davis, Lolita Fierro, Joe Fusaro, & Jonathan Munar. Interns: Diane Huerta, Esther Knuth, Sunny Leerasanthanah, & Kristopher Neira. Public Relations: Sutton. Station Relations: De Shields Associates, Inc. Legal Counsel: Barbara T. Hoffman, Esq.

Special Thanks: The Art21 Board of Trustees, Edna Atterbury, BAMPFA, La Biennale di Venezia, Leon Borensztein, Francesca Buccaro, Susie Cantor, Eleanor Coppola, Becki Couch-Alvarado, Tom di Maria, Apsara DiQuinzio, Ola Dlugosz, Matt Dostal, Jonathan Duffy, Skylar Economy, Nkechi Emeruwa, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, A.J. Fox, Mario Furloni, Ed Gilbert, Anna Gustavi, Heky, Mark Hellor, Max Hollein, Hannah Hughes, Celia Kitchell, Colin Klingman, Jeff Lee, Kija Lucas, Nahkoura Mahnassi, Jennifer Martindale, Rae Maxwell-Ross, Sarah Galender Meyer, Cara Miller, Hiro Narita, Miriam Newcomer, Jerome Pansa, Katie Revilla, Melissa Reyes, Lawrence Rinder, Sara Roffino, Mary Ryan, Salon 94, Claudia Schmuckli, Martine Syms, Target Gallery, Catherine Valentine, India Vega, Patrick Waldburger, Peter Weibel, & David Wiley.

Series Created By: Susan Dowling & Susan Sollins.

Major support for Season 9 is provided by National Endowment for the Arts, PBS, Lambent Foundation, Agnes Gund, Ford Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, Nion McEvoy, and The Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation.

©2018 Art21, Inc.

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