Artist, Johannesburg (b. 1993)
Thina Dube is a graduate of the University of Johannesburg. He holds a postgraduate diploma in Education, and has taught at the National School of the Arts. Thina is also an art therapist who works with children with special needs at Casa do Sol.
He has exhibited in group shows at Turbine Art Fair, Constitution Hill, Sguzu Press Soweto, and AVA amongst others. In 2018, he has exhibited at the Stellenbosch Museum, ABSA, Eclectica and InToto, and also completed a residency with First Floor Gallery Harare. Thina has worked with Guns & Rain since 2015.
Thina Dube’s work has long explored identity politics in South Africa: he frequently references identity’s many layers, both visible and hidden, and its fluid qualities, constantly changing and responding to social environments. Often using his own skillfully crafted handmade paper, Thina has explored the politics of language in South Africa, and the ways in which individual identities are dramatically shaped by what languages they can or cannot speak. In particular he is interested in English as means of control and manipulation in relation to indigenous South African languages. Silhouettes step in and out of the subtle indentation spaces defined by printing, or sometimes linger on the border of that space.
Thina Dube currently lives and works in Johannesburg.