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
Sir Zanele Muholi (They/them) is a visual activist born in Umlazi, Durban, South Africa.
Zanele Muholi documents and archives the lives and struggles of LGBTQI+ communities, evokes the fate of black south african women workers, violence and questions of identity, through
portraits, photographs, calligraphy, installations or more recently paintings and sculptures.
Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is ‘to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in South Africa and beyond’.
Creating a powerful, daring aesthetic, with an incredible evocative force, Sir Muholi frees themself from codes and rules to give us new canons, new models.
Muholi co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW) in 2002, and in 2009 founded Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual (activist) media. They continue to train and co-facilitate
photography workshops for young women in the townships and
run Youth development program around KwaZulu-Natal. In 2022, Muholi created the Muholi Art Institute, a mobile art institute for young and upcoming visual artists from South Africa.
Muholi has also commissioned over 25 young visual artists from KwaZulu-Natal to interpret their photographic series "Somnyama Ngonyama" using the visual activist's own mediums. This project was called "Ikhono LaseNatali".
Muholi studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo
Workshop in Newtown, Johannesburg, and in 2009 completed an
MFA: Documentary Media at Ryerson University, Toronto. In 2013
they became an Honorary Professor at the University of the
Arts/Hochschule für Künste Bremen.
Awards and accolades received include the Spectrum International Prize for Photography (2020); Lucie Award for Humanitarian Photography (2019); Rees Visionary Award by Amref Health Africa (2019); a fellowship from the Royal Photographic Society, UK (2018); France’s Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2017); the Mbokodo Award in the category of Visual Arts (2017); ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photo journalism (2016); Africa'Sout! Courage and Creativity Award (2016); Outstanding International Alumni Award from Ryerson University (2016); Fine Prize for an emerging artist at the 2013 Carnegie International; Prince Claus Award (2013);Index on Censorship - Freedom of Expression art award (2013);and Casa Africa award for best female photographer and Fondation Blachère award at Les Rencontres de Bamako biennial of African photography (2009).
SOLO SHOWS (Selected)
2023:
- 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 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
Faces and Phases series was presented in the South African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), dOCUMENTA 13 (2012) and the 29th São Paulo Biennale (2010).
GROUP SHOWS (Selected)
2023 :
- Maison des Arts, Antony, France
- Art Paris Art Fair - Galerie Carole Kvasnevski, 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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