ZANELE MUHOLI
Ziphi IV, Cape Town (2020)
90 x 60 cm
Baryta print
Edition of 8 + 2APs
“I have photographed so many people, I have captured so many videos and having documented painful experiences of other people without dealing with my own pain, I needed to remember me”.
Zanele Muholi – “In My World Every Human is Beautiful” | Tate
Born in Umlazi (Durban) and based in Cape Town, Zanele Muholi is a South African visual activist whose practice documents, archives, and celebrates the lives, struggles, and resistance of Black LGBTQI+ communities across South Africa . Muholi identifies as non-binary and uses they/them pronouns, insisting on the term visual activist to foreground the political urgency of their work .
Trained at the Market Photo Workshop (2001–2003) and holding an MFA in Documentary Media from Toronto Metropolitan University (2009), Muholi was appointed Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts Bremen (2013) and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège (2023) .
Since 2006, Muholi has developed Faces and Phases, a landmark photographic project countering the erasure and stigmatization of Black lesbian and transgender individuals. Their acclaimed series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) stages the artist in performative self-portraits that confront South Africa’s political history, colonial visual regimes, and the power of Blackness.
Beyond photography, Muholi’s practice includes calligraphy, installation, glass beadwork, sculpture, and painting, forging a bold aesthetic that challenges and rewrites dominant visual canons.
Muholi founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (2002), Inkanyiso (2009), and the Muholi Arts Institute (2021). In 2022, they launched Ikhono LaseNatali, commissioning over 25 young KwaZulu-Natal artists to reinterpret Somnyama Ngonyama through their own mediums.
Recipient of the 2026 Hasselblad Award, Muholi has exhibited at Tate Modern, SFMOMA, Stedelijk Museum, Gropius Bau, Brooklyn Museum, Serralves, Fondation Louis Vuitton, and many others. Their record-breaking touring retrospective began at Tate Modern in 2020. In 2023, four monumental sculptures were installed in the Tuileries Garden opposite the Louvre.
Muholi’s works are held in major collections including the Pinault Collection, Walther Collection, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Guggenheim, SFMoMA, and the ICP.
SOLO SHOWS (Selected)
2025
- Faces and Phases 19, Southern Guild, Los Angeles,
- US Sawubona, Yancey Richardson, New York, US
- Zanele Muholi, Serralves Museum, Porto, Portugal
- Zanele Muholi: Beleza Valente (Courageous Beauty), Instituto Moreira Salles Paulista, São Paulo, Brazil
- Zanele Muholi, SCAD Museum of Art, Georgia, US
2024
- Zanele Muholi, Tate Modern Gallery, London, UK
- EXPO CHICAGO | Galerie Carole Kvasnevski | Chicago (USA)
- Zanele Muholi Eye Me, SFMoMA, San Francisco (USA)
2023
- Musée du Louvre / Art Basel, Jardin des tuileries, |Galerie Carole Kvasnevski | Paris, France
- Kunstmuseum, Luzern, Switzerland
- Mudec, A visual activist, Milan, Italy
- Zanele Muholi Retrospective - MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) Paris, France
2022
- Art Paris Art Fair, Paris Galerie Carole Kvasnevski
- Kunstforeningen Gl Strand présente la première grande exposition de Zanele Muholi's au Danemark, à Copenhague
- Survey exhibition of Zanele Muholi's work travels to the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencià, Espagne
- Being Muholi: Portraits as Resistance at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston Massachussets, USA
- Zazise, solo exhibition at The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finlande
- Solo exhibition adapted from Muholi's Tate survey at Bildmuseet, Umeå, Suède
- Solo exhibition at Gropius Bau, Berlin, Allemagne
- Known and Strange: Photographs from the Collection at the V&A Museum, Londres, Royaume-Uni
2021
- Awe Maaah!, Yancey Richardson, New York, USA
- Zazise, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
- Somnyama Ngonyama : Hail the Dark Lioness, Cummer Museum, Florida USA
- Zanele Muholi, Stevenson, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Zanele Muholi, Stevenson,
Nize nani,
Cape Town, Afrique du Sud
2020
- Norval Foundation, au Cap, Afrique du Sud
- Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African and African American Art de l'Université de Harvard, USA
2019
- Seattle Art Museum, USA
- Colby Museum of Art, dans le Maine, USA
2018
- Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, USA
- New Art Exchange, Nottingham, UK
- Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentine
- Fototgrafiska, Stockholm, Suède
- LUMA Westbau, Zürich, Suisse
2017
- Durban Art Gallery (exposition d'enquête conçue comme un retour à la maison), Afrique du Sud
- Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, Afrique du Sud
- Glasgow School of Art, Ecosse
- Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
- Autograph ABP, Londres, UK
- Maitland Institute, Cape Town, Afrique du Sud
2016
- North Carolina Museum of Art, USA
- Standard Bank Gallery, Grahamstown, Afrique du Sud
- Gallatin Galleries, New York, USA
2015
- Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, UK
- Brooklyn Museum, USA
- Akershus Kunstsenter, Norvège
2014
- Einsteinhaus, Ulm, Allemagne
- Schwules Museum, Berlin, Allemagne
- Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, USA
2011
- Casa Africa, Las Palmas, Espagne
The series Faces and Phases was presented at the South African pavilion during the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), dOCUMENTA 13 (2012), and the 29th São Paulo Biennial (2010).
GROUP SHOWS (Selected)
2025
- #MoreTagukore, Nariwa Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
- MINEBANE!, Akita Museum of Art, Akita, Japan
- Middelheim Museum Sculpture Park, Antwerp, Belgium
- Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
- FEMMES, Perrotin Paris, France
- Corps et Âmes, Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris, France
- Transcendence: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy, Art Galleries at Black Studies, UT Austin, Texas, US
- Fondation Villa Datris, Engagées, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, l'Isle sur la Sorgue, France
- Collection Artissima, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Rochetaillée-sur-Saône, France
- Musée du Louvre, Zanele Muholi X Gavin Rajah, S'habiller en Artiste, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Lens, France
2024
- Musée du Louvre, la Galerie du Temps, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Lens, France
- Musée des Arts Décoratifs, L'intime de la chambre aux réseaux sociaux,Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Paris, France
2023
- Art Paris Art Fair, Paris, France
2022
- 1-54 Art Fair London x 10 - Galerie Carole Kvasnevski
- BAD+, Bordeaux, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski
- Edson Chagas, Zanele Muholi, Mame-Diarra Niang, Jo Ractliffe, Penny Siopis, and Guy Tillim exhibit in Shifting Dialogues: Photography from The Walther Collection at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Allemagne
2021
- 1-54 Art Fair, London, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski
- 31:Women, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
- Photo 2021, Melbourne, Australia
2020
- KZN Station, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, Paris, France
- Conversation de routes, Galerie Carole Kvasnevski en collaboration avec la Galerie Véronique Rieffel, Paris, France
- NIRIN, la 22e Biennale de Sydney, Australie
- African Cosmologies : Photography, Time, and the Other, 18e Biennale FotoFest, Houston, Texas, USA
2019
- "May You Live in Interesting Times", la 58e Biennale de Venise, Italie
- The Way She Looks : A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture au Ryerson Image Center, Toronto, Canada
- Mirrors - The Reflected Self au Museum Rietberg, Suisse
- Yithi Laba à l'atelier de photographie Market, Johannesburg, Afrique du Sud
2018
- Possibilities for a Non-Alienated Life, Biennale Kochi- Muziris, Inde
- Recent Histories, Huis Marseille and The Walther Collection, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
- From Africa to the Americas : Face à face Picasso, passé et présent, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Canada
2017
- Projet Masihambisane - on Visual Activism for Performa 17, New York, USA
- Traversées Ren@rde, Transpalette Centre d'Art, France
- The Photographic I - Other Pictures, S.M.A.K Gent, Belgique
- Structures of Identity, Museo Amparo, Mexique
- The Face : A Search for Clues, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresde, Allemagne
- Intimacy is Political : Sex, gender, language, power, Centro Cultural Metropoliano, Quito, Equateur
- Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
- Kyotographie International Photography Festival, Kyoto, Japon
2016
- Personae, FotoFocus Biennial, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- Où poser la tête ? ICA Océan Indien, Maurice
- Lecture de seconde main : William Kentridge et Zanele Muholi, Mead Art Museum, Amherst USA
- Supporting Alternative Visions, Prince Claus Fund Gallery, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas
- Biennale de Berlin, Allemagne
- Mina/Meg, Kulturhistorisk Museum, Oslo, Norvège
- Systematically Open ? Nouvelles formes de production de l'image contemporaine, LUMA, Arles, France
- Reality of My Surroundings, Nasher Museum of Art, Caroline du Nord, USA
- African Art Against the State, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, USA
2015
- After Eden/Après Eden - The Walther Collection, La Maison Rouge, Paris, France
- Making Africa : A Continent of Contemporary Design, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, et Guggenheim Bilbao, Espagne
2014
- The Order of Things, The Walther Collection, Ulm, Allemagne
- After Our Bodies Meet : From Resistance to Potentiality, Musée d'art gay et lesbien Leslie-Lohman, New York, USA
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