William Kentridge (1955, Johannesburg) is one of the most influential artists of our time, whose work spans drawing, film, sculpture, theatre, and opera, united by a fluid approach across media. At the core of his practice lies drawing, which he has described as a way of thinking in time—marked by erasure, movement, and revision. Growing up in Johannesburg during apartheid, in what he has called a “fractured society,” Kentridge’s work emerges from a condition of historical rupture and ethical unease. Rather than offering positions or solutions, it proceeds through uncertainty, contradiction, and provisional meaning, often articulated through irony and a dry, self-questioning humour.

 His work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s and can be found in the collections of art museums and institutions across the globe. He has directed operas for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Glyndebourne in Sussex, La Scala in Milan, English National Opera in London, the Sydney Opera House and the Salzburg Festival. His original works for stage combine performance, projections, shadow play, voice and music, and include the Refuse the Hour, The Head & the Load, Waiting for the Sibyl and The Great Yes, The Great No.

Kentridge is the recipient of honorary doctorates from several universities including Yale, Columbia, Brown and the University of London. He has presented public lecture series at Harvard University and Oxford University. Awards include the Kyoto Prize and the Praemium Imperiale Prize (Japan), the Princesa de Asturias Award (Spain) and an Olivier award (London). He is an honorary academician of the Royal Academy in London and a Foreign Associate Member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.