Neo Diseko is a Johannesburg based Visual artist. They obtained their National Diploma in Fine art (2016) and a btech (2017) at the University of Johannesburg.

Their artistic practice explores themes around the performativity of gender and its multiple dimensions. They explore these themes in various mediums including painting, installation, video and performance.

They have participated in several group shows, competitions and workshops including the 2019 Talent unlocked with Assemblage art and the 2018 ACBC with Bag Factory Artists' Studios and Art source South Africa.

In 2019 Diseko was shortlisted for the prestigious David Koloane Award and presented a performance piece titled ‘(In) Between’ at the Underline art fair in Johannesburg. They are currently fellow at the Institute of Creative Arts online fellowship program and are also a finalist in the Artist’s development program with the UJ art gallery and the MTN foundation

Artist Statement

My practice looks at notions of time, memory, imagined spaces and the black queer body. I interrogate these themes through painting, installation and performance to speak about the (in) visibility of queer bodies and queer narratives in South African townships and public spaces at large.

I question the erasure of queerness in such spaces through various mediums to assume the fluidity of gender and in doing so, I grapple with the idea of physicality by depicting the body in painting, recreating spaces through installations and physically occupying spaces through performance these notions of identity, memory, time and imagined spaces.