1. Samkela Stamper is an artist, curator, and art activist based in Ngqushwa, South Africa. She has organized several art exhibitions and public art projects in Eastern Cape and other provinces. 2. Some of her recent work includes founding the Thandeka Stamper Art Gallery in 2018, curating the Makana Route Public Art Project in 2018, and co-curating The Open Space Project pop-up art gallery in 2020. 3. She is currently working on a series called "NDINXANIWE" in response to the lack of water and service delivery in Ngqushwa since the end of apartheid 26 years ago. Stamper is also pursuing an MA in Fine

1. Some of my recent work:1. Thandeka Stamper Art Galari (Images 5-8)
Ngqushwa – EST June 22 2018
Founded by; Samkela Stamper
Curators; Samkela Stamper & Nyaniso Lindi
Artists; Sandile Goje, Buntu Qina, Vukile Teyise, Solomzi Mjayezi, Nyaniso Lindi, MamTshawe Dingiso, Meshack
Masuku, Madabane Sinqe, Nombuyiso Manjezi, CoreDeep MK, Tshepo Mdhluli, Lufefe, Hlubi Mdingi, Gogo Jim
Partners;
2. Makana Route Public Art Project (Images 11 -16)
Commission: DAC’s Mzansi Golden Economy (2018)
3. The Open Space Project (Images 2-4)
Makhanda – Est 31 May 2020 – anykindredsoulpop-upgalari.love
Curated by; Nyaniso Lindi & Samkela Stamper
Conceptual Artist: Samkela Stamper
4. uQongqothwane; The Dress Rehearsal (Images 9 – 10)
Ngqushwa April 2019
Artist: Artside E. L Solomzi Mjayezi and Buntu Qina, Tshepo Mdhluli, Nompucuko Zakaza, sis Stella

5. The Makana Route

7. A DECOLONIZED
ART GALARI

8. SHORT BIO
Samkela Stamper is a poet, a playwright and performing artist, an independent producer and curator who calls herself a
creative thinker and art-trepreneur who works with communities facilitating art skills to young people and women. Stamper is
passionate about urban renewal of local communities and public art development and has initiated and facilitated public art
and creative projects commissioned by Absa Bank, British Council SA & UK, Edinburgh International Festivals, Amathole Craft
Hub, Department of Public Works and Department of Arts and Culture in Mpumalanga, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Eastern
Cape Provinces. Stamper has performed and exhibited her works in notable festivals and spaces such as the Edinburgh
International Festival and Fringe Festival (2012 – 2015), the National Arts Festival (2007 & 2008, 2012 – 2018), Innibos Festival
(2006 – 2013) , Bushfire Festival (2015), Open Book Festival (2012), Jozi Book Fair (2014), The Constitution Hill (2014), World
Economic Forum in CT (2013) and Infecting The City Public Art Festival (2013 - 2015) and presented a paper at the UCT’s GIPCA
Public Art Symposium 2015 on Public Art, Youth and Women. Stamper was the artist in residence for Afrovibes Festival (2014)
touring 13 cities across the United Kingdom as part of the SA-UK Seasons.
Stamper was a Finalist of the 2008/ 2009 SABC 2 Lentswe Poetry Project and Mpumalanga winner for the most creative idea in
the 2010 FNB/ ENABLIS/ SEDA Nationwide Competition. She is a playwright and author of a book called Not for All the Apples,
Peanut Butter and Jam and founder of the Single Hand Artistic Encounters Project and African Diaspora. She was the assistant
trainee curator at the Mbombela Infecting the City Festival under the curation of National Arts Festival Chairperson and
Curator of Infecting The City Festival, Professor Jay Pather (2014). She was also assistant curator for Africa Centre’s Badilisha
Poetry Exchange Master Voices – Gauteng (2015).
Since the outbreak of Covid 19 in March 2020, Stamper currently lives in Ngqushwa with her daughter at the Thandeka
Stamper Art Galari where she is making new work called; NDINXANIWE; A Response on the lack of water in Ngqushwa and the
Lack of Service Delivery 26 Years since Democracy. Stamper does this work independently in her capacity as a Cultural Artivist
whose work is located in Community, Performance and Public Spaces
Stamper is also an MA candidate for Fine Art/ Environmental Studies called Design for Change at the University of Edinburgh,
Scotland (2020/2021) with her research solely based in her hometown, Ngqushwa with its 138 villages as a potential for
change.

13. Makana Route PADP (Public Art Development Programme)

16. OLD WORKLabasikati - A quilt that pays homage to the more than 20 000 women who
marched to the Union Buildings in the protest of the Apartheid Pass Laws on 09
August, 1956. The quilt is a collaboration between myself and Zimbabwean artist,
Judith Beza (2016). During August 2020 Under Lockdown, thousands and
thousands of handmade clay buttons are being made as we speak at Thandeka
Stamper Art Galari – in honour of all the women in Africa who have contributed
to our Artistic Landscape. And those women who marched in 1956.
1st Installation of the making of the Dolphin Beach Public Mural at
Jeffrey’s Bay. The Project was a collaboration between DSRAC and
Kouga Municipality with myself as The Facilitator and Mosaic Artist
(2016 -) The Wall has since been filled up.

17. My first big public art work commissioned by Architectural firm, Motse MLI in Mbombela, Mpumalanga 2014. The work was
part of my skills transfer work when I was the Special Projects Manager as part of the Extended Public Works Programme at
the Mpumalanga Department of Culture, Sport & Recreation (Sep 2013 – March 2015).

18. Links to some of my work
• https://ayandambanga.co.za/vukuzenzele/art-to-the-people-the-story-of-a-rural-
masterpiece/?fbclid=IwAR0r2JHRkAAugN52juxSv7tc2drtxRApHH-hLuFeO5wwwdbOxwIbQPZz96I
• https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/eastern-cape/watch-samkela-used-her-grandmothers-home-
to-bring-fine-art-to-her-village
• 18931915?fbclid=IwAR16d8q6z6YNZZKwWVyIzuYRaYUreFnLw1403kxvG0KZI7EcHHv-bivha70
• https://www.facebook.com/futureearth.org/videos/1781463691877172/
• https://www.facebook.com/futureearth.org/videos/1781750985181776/
• https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/daily-dispatch/20180525/281496456950887