ZANELE MUHOLI

Speaker, 2025
Qhawe, Umbumbulu, KwaZulu-Natal, 2020. 
Courtesy Zanele Muholi; Southern Guild, Cape Town/Los Angeles; and Yancey Richardson, New York. © Zanele Muholi.

Zanele Muholi is a visual activist, humanitarian and art practitioner whose work documents and celebrates the lives of Black LGBTQIA+ communities. Born in Umlazi, Durban and now residing in Cape Town, Muholi completed an MFA at Ryerson University in Toronto (2009). Beginning in 2006, they responded to the continuing discrimination and violence faced by South Africa’s LGBTQIA+ community by photographing Black lesbian and transgender individuals, resulting in the ongoing portrait project, Faces and Phases. The more recent series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness) shifts the lens with Muholi becoming both participant and image-maker. Their works have been exhibited at a number of international biennales, triennales, and major art museums including the Tate Modern, SFMoMA, MEP Paris, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Stedelijk Museum, Fotografiska (Stockholm and Shanghai), the Venice Biennale, dOCUMENTA (13), and the 29th São Paulo Biennial. Muholi received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liège in Belgium, the ICP Spotlights Award and France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, among many other accolades. Their solo exhibition at Southern Guild Los Angeles, Faces and Phases 19, expands on the original series, intimately documenting new subjects from Los Angeles, London and São Paolo.

Discover Zanele's work here.