In 1990 Zulu was awarded a six month study scholarship to Sweden, where he concentrated on etching processes. The work that resulted was exhibited at the African Art Centre in November 1991 and included African Women Dressing Traditional, for which he was awarded a special graphics prize of R1000 at the 1991 Natal Biennale. Another etching was titled Received a Letter from Home, and shows poignantly the longing for family of the artist in a foreign country.

His bibliography shows him to have exhibited in group showings both in South Africa and overseas. His work has been acquired by several public collections, namely the Dur­ban and Tatham Art Galleries, and the Killie Campbell and the Natal Provincial Administration Services Museums, theWits University and University of Fort Hare Galleries, the South African National Gallery, the University of South Africa and the Museum fur Volkerkund in Frankfurt, Germany.

Vuminkosi Zulu was born in Mapumulo in 1948. He attended the Rorke's Drift Art School from 1970 to 1972 and was a resident artist for several years at the time Otto Lundbohm was a lecturer there. He now lives and works as a full-time artist at his home near Kranskop.

Zulu is an important KwaZulu-Natal artist who consistently sells his work through the African Art Centre. Although he concentrates on sculpture, almost always in mthombothi wood, he is also known for his graphic art - particularly linocuts and etchings.

It has been difficult for Zulu to do much graphic art, owing to the distance of his home from press facilities, but he has produced many important linocuts by the old method of using the back of a spoon to print from linoleum blocks. His sculptures and graphics often depict Christian themes and comments on family and community life, some gentle and some stark and dramatic.

While he was resident artist at Rorke's Drift he carved a sculpture of enormous scale, which reached from floor to ceiling. It is now in the former KwaZulu Government Assembly building at Ulundi. The University of Natal commissioned a sculpture which stands in the entrance of the Malherbe Library. He has also received several commissions for sculptures for Catholic Churches through the Mariannhill Mission.