ANTON MOMBERG

BIOGRAPHY

ARE WE THERE YET MONUMENTAL

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

2015       
Bronze, Steel and Stone, Group Exhibition, Mount Nelson and Everard Read, Cape Town, South Africa

2011       
5th Anniversary, Group Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2009       
View From the South, Group Exhibition, Everard Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

2002       
Group Show, Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa

1999       
Art London, Group Show, London, UK

1995       
Cape Town Salon, Cape Town, South Africa

1994       
Group Show, BelvilleArt Society, South Africa

1991       
Cape Town Triennial, Cape Town, South Africa

1990       
Two Man Exhibition, South African Art Society, Pretoria, South Africa

1988       
Cape Town Triennial, Cape Town, South Africa

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