Mary Sibande was born in Barberton, South Africa, in 1982. She currently lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sibande obtained an Honours degree from the University of Johannesburg in 2007 following a Diploma in Fine Arts from the Witwatersrand Technical College in Johannesburg in 2004. Notable awards include the Helgaard Steyn Prize for Sculpture in 2021; 2017 Smithsonian National Museum of African Arts Award; the University of Johannesburg Alumni Dignitas Award in 2014 and the 2013 Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Visual Arts. Sibande is also the recipient of several residencies, fellowships and tenures, including the 2018-2019 Virginia C. Gildersleeve Professorship at Barnard College at Columbia University in New York, USA; the MAC/ VAL Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val- de-Marne in Paris, France in 2013; the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) in Washington, D.C, USA in 2011 and the Cite des Arts International Residency in Paris, France in 2006.

In 2022, a solo exhibition of Sibande’s works was presented by the Musée d’art Contemporainde Lyon in Lyon, France, titled The Red Ventriloquist, as well as an exhibition of new work at SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. Earlier solo exhibitions include; I came apart at the seams, at Somerset House in London, UK and Mary Sibande at the Leroy Neiman Gallery at Columbia University in New York City, USA, both in 2019; The Purple Shall Govern, a travelling exhibition presented at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly known as Grahamstown) in 2013, the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town in 2014, the Standard Bank Gallery in Johannesburg in 2014 (all in South Africa) and the Musée Léon Dierx in Saint Denis, Reunion Island in 2014; Long Live the Dead Queen at the Musée d’ArtContemporain di Val-de-Marne in Paris, France in 2013; Mary Sibande and Sophie Ntombikayise Take Central Court at the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, USA in 2012.

Sibande has exhibited her work extensively within curated group shows and biennales, including at the 54th Venice Biennale, as part of a group presentation for the South African Pavilion titled Desire, Narratives in Contemporary South African Art, in Venice, Italy (2011). She has shown work at the West Bund Art & Design, with Bloom Galerie in Shanghai, China; and at Paris Photo with Baverman Gallery in Paris, France, both in 2021. Other group shows include: Radical Revisionists: Contemporary African Artists Confronting Past and Present at Moody Centre for the Arts, Rice University in Houston, USA (2020); Open Borders, the 14th Curitiba Biennale in Curitiba, Brazil; Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity at the Boston Museum of Fine Art; and Construction of the Possible, the Havana Biennale in Havana, Cuba, all in 2019; The Red Hour at Dak’Art: African Contemporary Art Biennale in Dakar, Senegal; African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection at The National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C, USA, both in 2017; and the Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art at The Museum of Contemporary Art in Lyon, France (2013).

Sibande’s work forms part of various international collections, such as The Pérez Art Museum of Miami Collection, Miami, USA, and The National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, USA, amongst others.

In 2023, Sibande is participating in True Stories at MAC VAL - Val-de-Marne Contemporart Art Museum, in Vitry-sur-Seine, France; the Textile Biennial, at Museum Rijswijk, in Amsterdam, Netherlands; with an upcoming artist-in-residence at the Spencer Museme of Art, University of Kansas, United States. In 2024, Death and the Devil: The Fascination with the Gruesome, at Kunstpalast, in Düsseldorf, Germany; as well as Cooking Cleaning Caring, at Josef Albers Museum, in Bottrop, Germany.