Sonya Mmakopano Rademeyer
Biography
Sonya Mmakopano Rademeyer is a visual artist seeking social healing through empathy. Her core technique is Collaboration with humans, more-than-humans and Nature. The shared space of collaboration requires skills such as deep-listening, care and humility which were also necessitated during her 22 years as a previous Nurse Practitioner. When collaborating, Sonya will often include artistic practices such as gestural drawing, performance, sound, photography and moving imagery into the shared collaborative space.
Born in 1964 and raised in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) Sonya acknowledges her colonist ancestry, and how her privileges were gained at the cost of those marginalised through land dispossession. This political context continuing to drive her own decolonising process. Her inner and outer dialogue addresses central themes such as transmutation of trauma through empathy, and Earth as maternal healer. Sonya’s deep societal awareness around Land and belonging/non-belonging influences her choice of materiality, such as clay and natural fibres. These elements are visibly included into her live art performances as visible reminders to our collective and shared humanity.
Sonya’s intuitive and experimental artistic practice allows her to move fluidly between mediums and spaces, whilst challenging power structures within the colonial matrix. Most importantly, Sonya works at contributing towards social connection across cultural divides through relationality and empathy within Southern Africa.
Her interest in exploring empathy through sound and movement has been published in Interalia Magazine (UK). A graduate of Willem de Kooning Academie (Netherlands) she has participated in multiple international group exhibitions as well as representing South Africa at the 2008 Dak’Art Biennale (Senegal). Sonya was selected as research-artist into the AIR Residency associated with the University of Johannesburg (2022-2023), and more recently for a solo exhibition at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum (South Africa) in 2025.
Dec 2025