MASSA LEMU
Email: massalm @ gmail.com
EDUCATION
2017: PhD in Visual Arts at University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa
2009: M.A. Painting, Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah, Georgia
2003: B.Ed. Fine Art, Chancellor College University of Malawi Zomba, Malawi
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018: He who gave us teeth should give you art to see: A Patois Bourgeois P.Arty Manifesto, 1708 Gallery, Richmond.
2018: The Sea Hums Bearing Strange Gifts, Oakwood Arts, Richmond.
2013: Precariot (Lawndale Arts Center, Houston)
2012: Passages for the Undocumented (Rice University, Houston)
Stranded Fishes and Masks on Wheelchairs (Malawian Embassy, Washington DC)
2006: This Scourge is also a Mask (French Cultural Center, Blantyre)
Primal Forces (Capital Hotel, Lilongwe)
2003: Multiple Suns (French Cultural Center, Blantyre)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018: Dangerous Professors, Flatland Gallery, Houston.
2013: Do It. Hans Ulrich Obrist Collaboration, (Houston)
First Aid Kit (Rice University, Houston)
2012: Of Other Spaces (Dallas)
Dallas Biennale (Dallas)
2011: Houston Art Fair, (Houston)
Material Traces; Selections from Core 2011 (Dallas)
2009: An Evenly Measured Space (Savannah)
2008: 404/912, conceptual works by artists from Atlanta and Savannah (Atlanta)
TEACHING
2016- Present: Assistant Professor in Sculpture, Virginia Commonwealth University
2016: Part-time Lecturer in Visual Arts in the Department of Visual Arts and Visual Studies, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
2014-2015: Guest Critic in Graduate and Undergraduate Sculpture Classes, Stellenbosch University
2010-2011: Adjunct Lecturer in Drawing, Rice University, Houston, Texas
2004-2010: Full Time Lecturer in Art History/ Theory (African and Western) and Multimedia Studio Practice, Chancellor College, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi
FELLOWSHIPS
2017-2018: Writing Fellow at Institute for Creative Arts, University of Cape Town
2010-2012: Core Critical Studies Fellow Glassell School of Art, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, Texas
RESIDENCIES
2019: Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha.
2017: Oakwood Arts, Richmond Virginia
2013: Alabama Song, Houston.
PUBLICATIONS
2019: Performance in biopolitical collectivism: a study of Gugulective and iQhiya, book chapter in C. Boulle & J. Pather (eds), Acts of transgression: Contemporary live art in South Africa, Wits University Press, Johannesburg.
2018: Row: a thinkivist art intervention, Nordia Journal.
2018:
Laughing at the patois bourgeoisie
2017: Modern architecture as hegemony, in Kendall Buster/Disassembling utopias, Cape Town, Commune 1, 2017.
Gugulective as biopolitical collectivism, Third Text, vol 30, issue #3-4.
2015: Play and the profane in Samson Kambalu’s Holyballs, Holyballism and (Bookworm) The Fall of Man in Stedelijk Studies issue #3 http://www.stedelijkstudies.com/journal/play-and-the-profane/
“I’m drawn to the paradox of permanence and impermanence http://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/im-drawn-to-the-paradox-of-permanence-and-impermanence/
Vuli Nyoni: Artist as errant
http://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/vuli-nyoni-the- artist-as-errant/
2014: Danfo, Molue and the Afropolitan experience in Emeka Ogboh’s Soundscapes republished in Bisi Silva (ed.). 2014. Emeka Ogboh. Center for Contemporary Art Lagos & Archive Books
For the Ranter the Whole World is a Playground C& online magazine
http://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/for-the-ranter-the-whole-world-is-a-playground/
2013: What Part of Love is Universal? C& Magazine http://www.contemporaryand.com/magazines/what-part-of-love-is-universal-3/
2013: Dialogue; The Progress of Love The Menil Collection and Pulitzer Foundation, http://www.theprogressoflove.com
2012: Danfo, Molue and the Afropolitan Experience in Emeka Ogboh’s Soundscapes http://www.artandeducation.net/paper/danfo-molue-and-the-afropolitan-experience-in-emeka-ogbohs-soundscapes/
2011-2012 CORE Catalogue Museum of Fine Art, Houston
2011: Holy Jive 2010-2011 CORE Catalogue Museum of Fine Art, Houston
Round 33: The Seventh House Might Be Good… e-journal, http://www.fluentcollab.org/mbg/index.php/reviews/review/162/317
PRESENTATIONS
2018: ‘Laughing at the patois bourgeoisie,’ New Geographies: Africa and African Diasporas, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, New York University.
2017: 'On biopolitical collectivism,' Glassell School Core Program Lecture, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
'Critical subjectivities in contemporary African Art,' The critical dialogue series, Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2018: Passages for the undocumented in M. Petry, The word is art, Thames & Hudson, London.
2013: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-michael-petry/massa-lemu-artist-profile_b_3611102.html
http://www.texphrastic.com/poetic-terrorism-switch-your-gestalt-massa-lemu-at-rices-emergency-room-gallery/
2012: http://glasstire.com/2012/11/07/brochure-for-those-in-flight/
OffCite http://offcite.org/2012/06/07/massa-lemu-on-bayou-fish-cyborgs
2007: Steve Chimombo, AIDS ARTISTS AND AUTHORS, Zomba, WASI Publishers, Malawi
2006: Writers and Artists Services International WASI Zomba, Malawi
2004: Catalogue: Franco-COMESA Club Exhibition Lusaka, Zambia