Sam Nhlengethwa grew up in Ratanda location in Heidelberg.

He obtained his Fine Art Diploma at the Rorkes Drift Art Centre in the late 1970s. While Nhlengethwa exhibited far and wide during the 80s and 90s, it was his solo show “South Africa, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” in 1993 that established him at the vanguard of critical consciousness in South Africa and he won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1994.Nhlengethwa is a dedicated jazz lover and he once said painting jazz pieces was an avenue or outlet for expressing his love for the music.

“What I am doing is not new though, as there are other artists before me who painted jazz pieces. For example, Gerard Sekoto, Romare Bearden and Henri Matisse.

”Nhlengethwa’s work has been included in key exhibitions such as Seven Stories About Modern Art in Africa at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and major publications such as Phaidon’s The 20th Century Art Book.