Zanele Muholi: Sawubona
Yancey Richardson is pleased to present Sawubona, an exhibition showcasing five distinct series created by South African artist and visual activist Zanele Muholi between 2002 and 2013. This marks Muholi’s fifth solo show with the gallery and offers a powerful overview of their longstanding commitment to uplifting the Black LGBTQIA+ community in South Africa through a deeply collaborative and visually rich approach to representation. Notably, Sawubona will be the first exhibition outside of Africa to feature Muholi’s early work. The show will be on view from April 17 through May 23, 2025.
For over two decades, Muholi has explored the layered, dynamic experience of Black queer life in South Africa, building a body of work rooted in portraiture that is both emotionally intimate and politically charged. While they are perhaps best known for their acclaimed self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama (“Hail, the Dark Lioness”), which they began in 2012, Muholi had already initiated or completed several significant projects by then. These earlier series—Only Half the Picture (2002–2006), Being (2006), Beulahs (2006), Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing), and Miss Lesbian (2009)—confront the unique struggles and stereotypes faced by South Africa’s queer communities while centering empowerment, visibility, and self-determination.
Only Half the Picture, Muholi’s earliest project, emerged from their activism with the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, an organization they co-founded in 2002 that supports survivors of hate crimes across South Africa. Rather than focusing on trauma or violence, these photographs portray moments of stillness—body fragments at rest, faces in quiet reflection. In resisting sensationalism, Muholi reclaims dignity through subtlety, challenging viewers to reconsider normative ideas about gender, identity, and the act of looking.
This nuanced, affirming lens continues in the series Being and Beulahs. In Being, Muholi captures queer couples in moments of domestic intimacy or casual public presence, highlighting the simple but radical act of loving openly. Beulahs, by contrast, centers gay men—known within the community as “beulahs”—whose flamboyant and self-defined masculinity disrupts conventional ideas of gender. Photographed outdoors and in urban spaces, these images assert both individuality and belonging.
In Miss Lesbian, Muholi critiques societal norms surrounding beauty and gender by drawing on the visual language of pageantry. These self-portraits subvert traditional standards, using pageant aesthetics to explore how notions of success and desirability are culturally constructed and imposed.
Muholi’s ongoing series Faces and Phases serves as a profound living archive of Black LGBTQIA+ lives in South Africa. Each portrait is the product of trust, collaboration, and often long-term engagement. The title refers to both the individuals portrayed (“Faces”) and the evolving expressions of identity over time (“Phases”). Through this expansive collection, Muholi emphasizes the richness and diversity of gendered, racialized, and classed experience.
About the Author
Zanele Muholi is a South African photographer and self-described visual activist whose work centers the lives and visibility of Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex individuals, particularly within South Africa’s townships. For over a decade, they have documented the personal and political realities of the LGBTQ+ community in response to ongoing violence and marginalization. In 2006, Muholi launched Faces and Phases, an expansive and still-evolving portrait series that celebrates Black lesbian and trans individuals. Through this project, Muholi aims to create a visual archive that affirms existence and resists erasure, stating their intention as “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 SA and beyond.”
These compelling portraits are not just records—they are acts of reclamation and testimony. Muholi’s photographs challenge mainstream representations by offering images rooted in pride, resilience, and the affirmation of identity, contributing to a more inclusive and representative queer history in South Africa.
In the more recent and ongoing series Somnyama Ngonyama (“Hail the Dark Lioness”), Muholi turns the camera on themself, stepping into the dual role of subject and photographer. Through highly stylized self-portraits, they adopt a range of personas and reference pivotal moments in South Africa’s socio-political past. By heightening the darkness of their skin tone, Muholi reclaims Black identity and challenges historically dominant portrayals of Black women in visual culture.
Born in Umlazi, Durban, Muholi is currently based in Cape Town. They studied Advanced Photography at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg and earned an MFA in Documentary Media from Ryerson University in Toronto in 2009. Over the years, they have received numerous accolades, including the Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism from the International Center of Photography (2016), the Africa’Sout! Courage and Creativity Award (2016), Ryerson University’s Outstanding International Alumni Award (2016), the Fine Prize for Emerging Artists at the Carnegie International (2013), and the Prince Claus Award (2013), among others.
Muholi’s work has been shown at major international exhibitions including Documenta 13, the 55th Venice Biennale (South African Pavilion), and the 29th São Paulo Biennale. Solo exhibitions have been hosted by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Autograph ABP in London, the Mead Art Museum in Amherst, the Gallatin Galleries in New York, Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, the Brooklyn Museum, the Kulturhistorisk Museum in Oslo, the Schwules Museum in Berlin, Einsteinhaus in Ulm, and Casa Africa in Las Palmas.
Their photographs are held in prominent collections such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Guggenheim Museum, the Tate Modern, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, among many others.
In 2015, Muholi was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for their publication Faces and Phases 2006–14 (Steidl/The Walther Collection). Other publications include African Women Photographers #1 (Casa Africa and La Fábrica, 2011), Faces and Phases (Prestel, 2010), and Only Half the Picture (Stevenson, 2006). Muholi currently holds the title of Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts/Hochschule für Künste in Bremen.
Zanele Muholi: Sawubona
April 17 – May 23, 2025
Yancey Richardson Gallery – New York, USA
More info:
