Bulumko Mbete South Africa, b. 1995

Bulumko Mbete, born in 1995 on a serendipitous Saturday, is a creative practitioner with multicultural heritage. She is based in liminal spaces. Bulumko is a current MFA candidate at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. Mbete completed her BFA at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, University of Cape Town. She undertakes research in different forms of craft and design methodologies which are predominantly performed by women in Southern Africa. Her current research focuses on this form of craft and design as indigenous knowledge systems and archives. Her work is influenced by this mode of storytelling.

Mbete creates a framework to communicate generational traditions and gestures of love using textile, beading, natural dyeing and weaving. Furthermore she explores the geographic connections and synchronicities of South African history alongside our contemporary realities. She is the 2023 recipient of the Cassirer Welz Award and the ABSA L’Atellier Gerard Sekoto Award, 2023.

Mbete’s extensive experience spans both artistic and curatorial roles. In 2024, she secured a Wherewithall curatorial grant for her collaborative project Event Horizon with artist Karim Hassin. In the same year, her art was commissioned by JP Morgan as part of the Abadali Art Project. She also served a Program associate at the Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation from Foundation 2020 to August 2022. She was a production assistant for renowned artists such as Dineo Seshee Bopape, Buhlebezwe Siwani and Lhola Amira.