Mmakgabo Sebidi is on a 3-month Residency at the University of Pretoria that is funded by the Mellon Foundation. The residency includes working with Fine Art students at the Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Pretoria. She will deliver a Master Class at the Student Gallery, Javett-UP at the University of Pretoria on the 29^th August. 

Mmakgabo was born in 1943 in Marapyane near Hammanskraal, Gauteng. Sebidi was forced to move to Johannesburg to become a domestic worker and dressmaker. Later, Sebidi felt the need to retained her art practice learned from the grandmother and enrolled at the White Studio in Sophiatown from 1970-1973, a studio established by John Koenakeefe Mohl who encouraged her to paint. In 1985 she accepted a teaching position at the Katlehong Art Centre and held a solo exhibition at FUBA (Federated Union for Black Artists) in the same year. She worked at the Alexandra Art Centre in 1986 as a teacher and later joined the Johannesburg Art Foundation. During this period, Sebidi was actively involved in community projects at FUNDA Art Centre and at the Thupelo Art Workshops. 

Sebidi’s artworks are steeped in experiences of black Africans; however, she did not have a national profile as a South African artist until she received the 1989 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, which was accompanied by a country-wide, traveling solo exhibition. This allowed for a wider white South African audience to engage with her works, which is devoid of western trends. Sebidi has maintained the theme of women in her artworks, in which she uses materials (such as pastel, acrylic and oil paint) in a way that allows for an expressive engagement between medium and content. 

The Residency will culminate in an exhibition of works by Fine Art students from Tshwane University of Technology, University of Pretoria and Mmakgabo Sebidi in the Student Gallery, Javett-UP at the University of Pretoria in October 2019.