Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town/Johannesburg

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Johannesburg, Stevenson Gallery, Somnyama Ngonyama, 2012-2020 (another example)

New York, Yancey Richardson, ADAA, The Art Show, 27 February-1 March 2020 (another example)

London, Tate Modern, Zanele Muholi, 5 November 2020-31 May 2021 (another example)

Zanele Muholi’s career started 20 years ago while focusing their lens on Black LGBTQIA+ people in their South African homes in a long quest to represent the Black queer society and the struggles that modern society impose on them. In Somnyama Ngonyama - Hail the Dark Lioness (2012 to 2018), Muholi’s recent series of self-portraits that stand between fiction and tr💟uth, the artist is directly staring atဣ the viewer, portraying themselves with every guise, hairstyle and costume.

Defying the conventional form of representation, Muholi embodies  of self-affirmation. When questioned about the stimulus of their career dedication to their community, Muholi comments: “I was prompted by absence and silence, and a longing for respect and recognition for the LGBTQIA+ community. People were kept voiceless for many years, so I consciously thought that I needed to create a visual archive that could speak to me and many others. If you don’t see yourself in the media, you’re forced to create visual content that can fulfil you. I wanted to ♋build an archive that is not erasable, that would live beyond us, hence we reach Faces and Phases 14 in 2020. People come out, others transition — phases change, but our faces and publications continue to live.”

Muholi, who identifies as non-binary and prefers to be called a visual activist, has previously appeared at the likes of the prestigious Documenta (13) in Kassel, Germany, and the Sওouth African Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale and a retrospective of their body of work i💦s currently exhibited at the Tate Modern, London.