Usha Seejarim

Usha Seejarim is a conceptual artist whose practice interrogates the intersection of gender, labour and power through the transformation of everyday, domestic objects. By recontextualising materials such as irons, brooms, and wooden pegs, Seejarim’s sculpture and installations destabilise normative associations of women’s work, reframing acts of care and repetition as aesthetic and political gestures.

At the heart of her exploration is the complex relationship between servitude and sexuality. Domestic labour carries with it an inherent tension between obligation and identity. Seejarim’s transformation of household objects into sculptural forms invites viewers to reflect on societal expectations that confine and define roles tied to care-giving and service. Her abstraction of these objects – negating their intended purpose to become vessels of collective memory – is an act of liberation, not only for the physical things themselves, but also for the location of women in relation to capitalist consumption. Seejarim asserts the centrality of the feminine experience through the articulation of vulvic forms, confronting societal taboos around the female body while reclaiming its power.

Born in Bethal, South Africa in 1974, the artist obtained a B Tech Honours in Fine Art from the University of Johannesburg (1999) and a Master’s in Fine Art from the University of Witwatersrand (2008). She also has a Master’s in Business Administration awarded by theUniversity of Reading, UK through Henley Business School (2025).

Seejarim has held numerous solo exhibitions, including Used at Southern Guild New York (Forthcoming) (2026); Unfolding Servitude, Southern Guild Cape Town (2025); Angel of the House, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town (2021); Vessel of the Fish, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam (2019); Un balai, pourquoi pas une balai, SCAC Marestaing, France (2019); Transgressing Power, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg (2019); and Venus at Home (2012-2014), at Northwest University Gallery, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Durban Art Gallery and the National Arts Festival in Makhanda. She has also held solo presentations at the Turbine Art Fair in Johannesburg, FNB Art Joburg and Investec Cape Town Art Fair.
Her work has been presented internationally at institutions and biennales including Städtische Galerie Bremen, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Kunstinstituut Melly, Dak’Art Biennale, Nirox Sculpture Park, OSTRALE Biennale, and Iziko South African National Gallery.

Seejarim is a visiting Professor of Practice with the SARChI Chair in South African Art and Visual Culture at the University of Johannesburg. She has received multiple awards, including the Dignitas Award from University of Johannesburg (2021), SEED Award from the Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art (2019), Tomorrow’s/Today Prize at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2018), SCAC Marestaing & The Secular Solidarity Association Sculpture Award at the DakarBiennale (2018), and Ampersand Fellowship Award (2003).

Her work is included in the collections of the Iziko South African National Gallery, Southern African Foundation for Contemporary Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Stellenbosch University, Constitutional Court in Johannesburg, University of South Africa, and Fondazione Fiera Milan in Italy, among others.