Biography

Lerato Motaung (b. 1991) in Katlehong, Germiston, is a visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa. After training in drawing at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in 2008, and in sculpture at the Katlehong Art Center in 2009, he received his Diploma in Fine Arts in 2015 from the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria. For his primary means of expression, Motaung weaves the familiar with the imagined to create a personal and intuitive evocation of history. His work draws  from lived experience, from his daily life in metropolitan Johannesburg where he lives and works, to the memories of his youth in the North West Province and his formative years in Katlehong township. Intertwined with these personal geographies are the broader themes of memory, loss, and migration, forces that shape, fracture, and reform identity across time and space.

He was the finalist of the PPC Imaginarium Awards hosted by the University of Johannesburg Art Gallery (2019). His recent solo installation exhibition Whispers of What Was (2025) at Constitution Hill. He took part in the artist residency program our Africa, Our Future with Africa Union in Senegal (2022). His group exhibitions to date include: Motaung/ Seakamela, Pretoria Art Museum – Pretoria (2023); Africa Supernova, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands (2023); The Playground, Haart Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2023);Flights Of Fancy, THK X Boschendal X Norval, Cape Town, South Africa (2022). In August 2020, Lerato Motaung won The Emergence Art Prize, which was organised by THK Gallery with support from Rand Merchant Bank. In Spring 2022 he took a two month residency at the innovative Quartier am Hafen Studio House on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne, Germany. His work is included in collections around the world including two large paintings from 1-54 Paris at Christie’s, which were acquired by Foundation H (Paris, Madagascar), a large scale painting for Cardiff, Wales, and two paintings in the Africa First Collection.

Artist C.V
SOLO EXHIBITION
2025
  • Whispers of What Was, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, South Africa

2024

  • Traces In The Still Air, Studio Nicholas Hlobo, Johannesburg, South Africa

SELECTED GROUP SHOW

2025

  • Inkanyezi, ALX Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Path Nomad Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2023

  • Motaung/ Seakamela, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
  • Africa Supernova, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
  • The Playground, Haart Gallery, London, United Kingdom
  • African Union (AU20), African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

2022

  • Our Africa, Our Future, Loman Art House, Dakar, Senegal
  • Africa Now, THK Gallery, Cologne, Germany
  • Enter Art Fair, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Open City, FNB Art Joburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Flights Of Fancy, THK X Boschendal X Norval, Cape Town, South Africa
  • De Code, THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
  • Investec Cape Town Art Fair, CTICC, Cape Town, South Africa

2021

  • AKAA (Also Known as Africa), Paris, France
  • Art X Lagos Online
  • 1-54 London Art Fair, Somerset House, United Kingdom
  • 1-54 Paris Online

2020-2021

  • Reflect. Reimagine. Reset, THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2020

  • Latitudes Online, Exhibitor
  • The Black Dot, David Baillie Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

2017

  • The Precarity of Spectacle, in Bed with Artists, Cape Town, South Africa

2015

  • A Memory, Centurion Gallery, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa
  • For Sale, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

2014

  • On Table, Tshwane University of Technology Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa
  • Ariel Empire, Johannesburg Fringe Art Fair, South Africa
  • Creatures of Light, Freedom Park Heritage Site and Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

AWARDS and RECOGNITION

2021

  • Sasol New Signature, Pretoria Art Museum, Finalist

2020

  • The Emergence Art Prize, Winner

2019

  • PPC Imaginarium Awards, University of Johannesburg Art Gallery, Finalist

RESIDENCIES

2022

  • AU20 Artists Residency, Senegal
  • Quartier am Hafen Studio House, Germany

2025

  •  More Family Collection and SAFFCA Residency, Lion Sands, South Africa.

2017

  • In Bed with Artists, hosted by Nico Athene and sponsored by ALMA MARTHA, Cape Town

COLLECTION

  • Schulting Collection
  • Foundation H
  • Africa First Collection