About

Wonga Mancoba’s paintings and drawings are full of stories of slavery, poverty, folklore and urban mythology. His almost idiomatic treatment of these themes is always ripe with the tension of social indignation and skepticism towards the political and economic establishment – but a profound trust in human beings always prevail. Wonga Mancoba was born in 1946 in Paris, France to artist parents Danish sculptor Sonja Ferlov Mancoba (1911-1984) and South African exiled painter Ernest Mancoba (1904-2002), who were both founding members of the CoBrA movement. Their life and work had an enormous influence on Wonga's career as an artist and his works, though very different from those of his parents, are conceived almost in symbiosis or dialogue with the sculptures, drawings and paintings he grew up with and lived with his whole life. Wonga Mancoba creates a hectic universe in his works. His vibrant, heavily stylized use of letters, public transportation, infrastructure, advertisements, shop signs, brand names come together to form a sort of urban spirit world in which all the ghosts of the past and hopes of the future can live together.

A catalogue with an introductory text on Wonga Mancoba was published by Galerie Mikael Andersen in 2018. Please contact the gallery for more information.

Estate Ferlov Mancoba website