Biography
Nare Mokgotho (b. 1986, Johannesburg) is a visual artist and director of commercials. He has received two Gold Screen Awards at the Young Directors Award in Cannes (2019). Mokgotho holds an MFA from the University of the Witwatersrand, where his research examined boredom as an aesthetic in South African art and photography. Recently, under the auspices of the Gwärtler Stiftung, Mokgotho initiated the Canned Laughter Study Group, an ongoing research project that explores the construction of Black identities through sitcoms in the twilight years of apartheid. He co-founded Johannesburg-based interdisciplinary artist collaborative MADEYOULOOK with Molemo Moiloa; they explore everyday popular imaginaries and their modalities for knowledge production. Mokgotho and Moiloa were DAAD Artists-in-Berlin fellows for visual arts (2022) and Lumbung artists at documenta fifteen (2022). They were nominated for the VLC Prize for Art and Politics at the New School, New York (2016–2017).