BIOGRAPHY
ANTON MOMBERG
(b. 1951, Pietersburg, South Africa)
Momberg was born in 1951, in Pietersburg, Northern Transvaal. He is a sculptor of portraits and figures, working in bronze, wood, ceramics and polyester resin. He studied at Port Elizabeth Technikon, under Hillary Graham and Neil Rodger, gaining a Teacher’s Diploma in Fine Art.
Anton Momberg has emerged as arguably South Africa’s finest realist in sculpture, focusing mainly on the female nude. His finely crafted work cast in marble dust and resin has an unearthly, unsettling quality that somehow makes a monolith of the contemporary female form, as distinct from the “Venus” of antiquity. Momberg has also turned his hand to other subjects he admires, notably an immaculate full length sculptural portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, an edition of which can be viewed at the National Gallery and at the King George VI gallery in Port Elizabeth.
The meticulous nature of Momberg’s work and the fact that he casts them himself means that he has at best produced one new sculpture a year over the last ten years, a remarkable and unique commitment to quality in an age of mass production. Momberg has participated in numerous group exhibitions at Everard Read, Cape Town and showcased as part of regular group exhibitions in Port Elizabeth since 1980.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2016
Opening Gallery Group Exhibition, CIRCA Gallery, London, UK
2011
2009
2002
1995
1994
1991
1990
1988
PUBLIC COMMISSIONS
Dr Danie Craven for University of Stellenbosch
Western Province Rugby Union
Despatch Rugby Club.
Heinz Betz for P.E. Technikon
Prof. E Marais for University of Port Elizabeth
Molly Blackburn for Molly Blackburn Senior Secondary School
Dr Rose Innes for Uhenhage
Major restoration of important public monuments in Port Elizabeth
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu