Elisia Nghidishange

Deep Smile 1, Elisia Nghidishange, Mixed media sculpture

2022

Elisia Nghidishange (b. 1981) was born in Eenhana in northern Namibia. This printmaker, sculptor and mixed media artist graduated from the College of the Arts in Windhoek in 2016. Nghidishange has taken part in various group exhibitions locally, and in 2017 she opened her first solo exhibition titled ‘The Cost of Wealth’ at the Goethe-Institut, Windhoek. Of her artistic process, Nghidishange explains, “I have always used and been inspired by the materials that have been part of my life since childhood.” Working with motifs drawing from the human figure, cow horns, and ostrich eggshell beads, Nghidishange’s work also explores relationships between the pursuit of wealth and the place of tradition in a contemporary and cosmopolitan society, and between gender and tradition in this context. Nghidishange exhibited as part of StArt Art Gallery's exhibition ‘Being Here’ in 2017. In 2019, Nghidishange completed her first artist residency in Rapperswil, Switzerland where she held her second solo exhibition called ‘The Change Of.... Eendume Movakwahepo Shendjeni’. Nghidishange held her third solo exhibition 'Insight of Intrusive Women' at the National Art Gallery of Namibia in July 2020. Read more about this recent body of work here. In 2021, Nghidishange was awarded 2nd Prize for Sculpture at the 2020 Bank Windhoek Triennial.