Tuli Mekondjo

b. Kwanza-Sul, Angola, 1982. Lives in Windhoek, Namibia.

Tuli Mekondjo’s works vividly express the generative powers of women, nature and the imagination in healing, and build on her early history of displacement as a Namibian refugee in Angola and Zambia during the struggle for Namibian Independence. A primarily self-taught artist, Mekondjo has been exhibiting her works since 2016 and is represented by Guns & Rain.

Gallery
CV

Education

Self Taught

Solo exhibitions

2025: Afrotekismo. Hales Gallery, London
2025: OMUUA OKU LI POPEPI: The Lord is Nearer / Herra on lähellä. St James's Church, Piccadilly, London
2025: Tuli Mekondjo, Kunsthalle Bern, Bern
2024: SIDA | ÔANA MÂPA HÂ? Where Are Our Children? An Ode to the Spirits of the South. Hales Gallery, New York
2023: Ousie Martha. Guns & Rain, Johannesburg
2022: Oudjuu wo makipa etu/ The burdens of our Bones. Hales Gallery, London.
2020: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, with Guns & Rain, Cape Town, South Africa.
2019: Limbadungila, The Project Room, Windhoek, Namibia.
2016: The Bellowing Mind, Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre, Windhoek, Namibia.

Group Exhibitions (Namibia)

2023: The Fish That Sees Its Water Getting Shallow Cannot Be Stranded. The Project Room, Windhoek
2018: Future Africa Visions in Time, Windhoek, Namibia (a collaboration between the Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, Iwalewahaus Bayreuth and the Goethe-Institut Namibia).

Group Exhibitions (International)

2025: Us. 19 fundamental rights. 19 artistic positions. One dialogue space. Deutscher Bundestag, Berlin, Germany
2025: Signals of Power. Nauen, Kamina, Windhoek, Brandenburg Museum, Potsdam, Germany
2025: Stellenbosch Triennale: BA’ZINZILE: A Rehearsal for Breathing, Cape Town, South Africa
2024: The Dak'Art Biennale of Contemporary African Art: The Wake, Awakening, Xàll wi, Dakar, Senegal
2024: Decade: 10 Years of Guns and Rain, Johannesburg
2024: Cantando Bajito: Testimonies. Ford Foundation Gallery, New York
2024: Mémoire : récits d'une autre Histoire. Foundation H, Antananarivo
2023: To be Named. HausKunstMitte, Berlin
2023:O Quilombismo: Of Resisting and Insisting Of Flight as Fight Of Other Democratic Egalitarian Political Philosophies. Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
2023: Common Ground. DAAD Galerie, Berlin
2023: EXPO Chicago, with Hales Gallery, Chicago
2023: ARCO Lisboa, with Guns & Rain, Lisbon
2023: Ousi Martha, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Basel
2023: Art Central Hong Kong, with Guns & Rain, Hong Kong
2023: Mémoire : récits d'une autre histoire. National Museum, Cameroon
2023: From Windhoek to Kamina to Nauen. IDEAL Art Space, Leipzig
2022: Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Guns & Rain, Cape Town
2022: Unsettled. Duende Art Projects, Antwerp.
2021: Un.e Air.e de Famille. Musée Paul Éluard de Saint-Denis, Paris.
2021: African Galleries Now. Artsy, with Guns & Rain
2021: Frac Nouvelle-Aquitaine. MÉCA, France
2021: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. London, UK, with Guns & Rain
2021: Face-to-face. Traversées Africaines, Galerie Anne de Villepoix, Paris
2021: Threads. Duende Art Projects, Antwerp.
2020: Borders of Memory, (online), Guns & Rain, Johannesburg.2020: 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair. London, UK, with Guns & Rain
2020: Virtual Contemporary Art Fair, ARCO Lisboa, Lisbon.
2019: 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, Guns & Rain, London, United Kingdom.
2019: Suffrage, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg.
2019: NJE Collective, Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town.
2018: NJE Collective, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg.2022: I was her, and she was me..., Sakhile&Me, Frankfurt
2016: Collective at the Art Market, Budapest, Hungary.

Residencies and Awards

2024: Villa Romana, Florence, Italy
2022: DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme, Berlin, Germany
2022: Norval Sovereign African Art Prize (Finalist), Norval Foundation, Cape Town

Collections

ARAK Collection, Doha, Qatar
Baker Library, Harvard Business School, Boston/MA, USA
Fondation Blachère, Apt, France
Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
University of South Africa (UNISA), Johannesburg, South Africa
German Parliament Collection, Berlin, Germany
Fondation H, Antananarivo, Madagascar
Mercedes-Benz Collection, Stuttgart, Germany