Usha Seejarim

Usha Seejarim (b. South Africa) holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art from the University of The Witwatersrand. She is a conceptual and socially engaged artist who uses found objects such as wooden pegs, irons and brooms to communicate complex and simple ideas around the domestic position of women.

She created a number of public artworks including the wings outside the Radisson Red Hotel, made from domestic iron bases in Rosebank and is best known as the artist who produced the 2m high beaded portrait of Nelson Mandela, which formed the backdrop to his funeral in 2013. In August 2022, Seejarim presented The Resurrection of the Clothes Peg, a 13 meter, 40 ton steel sculpture at Burning Man in Nevada USA, where she was awarded a honorarium and is the first African artist historically to exhibit in Burning Man.

Seejarim was awarded the prestigious Chancellor’s Alumni Dignitas Award from The University of Johannesburg in 2021. She has presented over 14 solo exhibitions including Angel of the house at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town 2021; Keepers of the Common at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair in Cape Town in 2018 and Vessel of the Fish at Kunstinstituut Melly Centre for Contemporary Arts in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 2020,