Zanele Muholi Opens Major Cape Town Solo Spanning More Than Two Decades of Practice on July 18th
Opening at Southern Guild Cape Town on 18 July 2026, Kanye Nawe is a major solo exhibition by South African visual activist and 2026 Hasselblad Award Laureate Zanele Muholi, spanning more than two decades of the artist's practice. Occupying the gallery in its entirety, the exhibition brings together a densely configured installation of the seminal community portrait project Faces and Phases; intimate photographs from Only Half the Picture, Being, Mo(u)rning, LiZa, and ZaVa; new works from the ongoing self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness); and recent bronze sculptures.
Apinda Mpako and Ayanda Magudulela, Parktown, Johannesburg 2007
Meaning "with you", "alongside you", or more broadly "oneness" in isiZulu, Kanye Nawe reflects a philosophy of shared presence that underpins Muholi's longstanding commitment to documenting, preserving, and celebrating Black LGBTQIA+ lives while challenging historical erasure. Opening shortly after Faces and Phases 20, an independent presentation held during the 61st Venice Biennale, the exhibition coincides with various personal and historical anniversaries that have shaped the trajectory of Muholi’s practice. Among them are 20 years since the inception of Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing), 20 years since South Africa’s Civil Union Act legalised same-sex marriage, and the 30th anniversary of South Africa's Constitution.
Katlego Mashiloane and Nosipho Lavuta, Ext. 2, Lakeside, Johannesburg 2007
Central to the exhibition is Faces and Phases, widely regarded as one of the most significant visual records of Black LGBTQIA+ lives globally. Initiated in South Africa in 2006 in response to the violence and hate crimes faced by Black Queer communities, the series sought to challenge their absence and misrepresentation within public and historical records. Since then, the project has expanded across continents, encompassing participants photographed in multiple countries. Kanye Nawe brings together early portraits made in South Africa alongside recent additions produced in London, Porto, Panama City, Los Angeles, Salvador, São Paulo, Venice, and Rio de Janeiro.
Velisa Jara, Cape Town, 2022
Select works from Only Half the Picture, Being, Mo(u)rning, LiZa, and ZaVa explore intimacy, desire, and the complexities of Queer relationships, portraying moments of tenderness and vulnerability while affirming relationships as spaces of care, solidarity, and mutual recognition.
Toya DeLazy, London, 2024
In Somnyama Ngonyama, the artist uses their own body as a site through which histories of race, labour, gender, sexuality, and representation are examined and reclaimed. Created while travelling for exhibitions, residencies, and research, the portraits function as a form of visual journaling, responding to the places Muholi inhabits and the objects and encounters that surround them. While Faces and Phases builds a living archive of community, Somnyama Ngonyama becomes an evolving record of self-reflection. The works presented in Kanye Nawe include recent self-portraits made in Cape Town, Paternoster, London, Los Angeles, Panama City, Rio de Janeiro, and Venice.
Tinashe Wakapila, Durban, 2017
Three large-scale bronze sculptures extend Muholi's exploration of memory, spirituality, ancestry, and survival into three dimensions. Drawing on the body as both monument and vessel, they expand the artist's investigation of protection and collective remembrance. Across disciplines, Muholi's practice remains rooted in the act of bearing witness, affirming dignity, and the enduring presence of Black Queer lives.
18 July – 10 September 2026
Southern Guild Cape Town
Silo 5, V&A Waterfront
Cape Town
Fatumata Djabula, Porto, 2025 copy
ABOUT ZANELE MUHOLI
Zanele Muholi (b. 1972, Umlazi, Durban) is a South African visual activist, humanitarian, and art practitioner whose work documents, celebrates, and preserves Black LGBTQIA+ lives. Based in Cape Town and working throughout South Africa and abroad, Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop (2001–03) and completed an MFA in Documentary Media at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University), Toronto (2009). They received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège, Belgium (2023), and were appointed Honorary Professor of video and photography at the University of the Arts Bremen, Germany (2013). Since the late 1990s, Muholi has developed a multidisciplinary practice spanning photography, sculpture, film, and installation. Through landmark bodies of work, including Faces and Phases and Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness), they have challenged the exclusion of Black Queer lives from visual culture and historical archives while creating new forms of representation, remembrance, and self-determination. Deeply committed to education and community empowerment, Muholi is the founder of the Muholi Arts Institute (MAI), Inkanyiso, a platform for Queer visual media, and co-founder of the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW), which advocates for the rights and safety of Black lesbian women. They continue to support emerging practitioners through workshops, mentorship, and youth development initiatives. Muholi has received major international honours, including being named the 2026 Hasselblad Award Laureate, the ICP Spotlights Award, the Spectrum International Prize for Photography, the Lucie Award for Humanitarian Photography, the ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism, the Prince Claus Award, and France's Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Their work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including Tate Modern, London; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA); the Brooklyn Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Instituto Moreira Salles, São Paulo; Museu de Arte do Rio (MAR), Rio de Janeiro; Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art, Porto; Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris; the Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg; and Foto Arsenal Wien, Vienna. Recent and forthcoming publications include Somnyama Ngonyama (Volumes I and II), Faces and Phases, and Faces and Phases 2006–2026 (MACK, 2026).
Zanele Muholi Portrait 2026 Cr. Ikram Abdulkadir & HasselbladFoundation.01.HR
ABOUT SOUTHERN GUILD
Southern Guild platforms artists whose work is ambitious, emotionally resonant, and rooted in personal and collective experience. Founded in 2008 by Trevyn and Julian McGowan and based in Cape Town and New York (opening 2026), the gallery is vested in artmaking as a means to claim agency, materialise cultural memory, and envision progressive futures. Working in the spirit of a guild, Southern Guild fosters collaborative, artist-led practices through rigorous engagement with material and process, comprehensive programming, and the GUILD Residency in Cape Town. Recognised for its bold curatorial vision and commitment to material integrity, the gallery presents at leading international fairs and partners with curators, institutions, and museums to deepen the impact and visibility of its artists. Works have been acquired by institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Brooklyn Museum, Hammer Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Gallery artists have also exhibited at Tate Modern, Pompidou Centre, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Saint-Étienne Métropole (MAMC), Seoul Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, among others.
