Zanele Muholi opens Kanye Nawe in Cape Town
Published on 08/31/2026 at 16:44 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Zanele Muholi opens the major solo exhibition Kanye Nawe at Southern Guild in Cape Town. The gallery confirms that the show runs from July 18 to September 10, 2026, occupying its V&A Waterfront space with photographs and new bronze sculptures. Southern Guild exhibition page
The Cape Town solo exhibition
Kanye Nawe presents more than two decades of Muholi’s practice, from early series to recent large-format portraits and sculptural works. Southern Guild describes the exhibition as tracing a sustained commitment to visibility, memory and collective care within Black queer communities. Muholi Art Institute exhibition text
The title Kanye Nawe, an isiZulu phrase that translates loosely as ‘with you’ or ‘oneness’, carries both communal and spiritual resonance. In accounts of the opening, Muholi connects it to a hymn cherished in their family, underlining how the exhibition is framed as a shared journey rather than an individual retrospective.
Faces and Phases at 20 years
A central axis of the exhibition is the long-running portrait series Faces and Phases, begun in 2006 in the wake of South Africa’s Civil Union Act legalizing same-sex marriage. Southern Guild and the Muholi Art Institute describe the archive as a living project that now encompasses hundreds of portraits of Black lesbian, transgender, queer and gender-nonconforming people. Kanye Nawe opening report
At the July 18, 2026 opening, Muholi emphasized that Faces and Phases remains ‘an ongoing series until further notice’, explicitly crediting participants as co-authors of the work. The evening highlighted portraits made more than 15 years ago alongside recent images, underscoring continuity across generations and geographies.
Further background on Zanele Muholi
Readers can follow how Zanele Muholi’s visual activism unfolds across exhibitions, awards and institutional presentations in recent years.
The broader practice in focus
Beyond Faces and Phases, Kanye Nawe gathers key bodies such as Somnyama Ngonyama, Only Half the Picture, Being, Brave Beauties and Mo(u)rning. Southern Guild’s curatorial text underlines how these series collectively challenge colonial image traditions and the hostile visibility experienced by Black LGBTQIA+ communities in South Africa and abroad. Southern Guild curatorial overview
In Somnyama Ngonyama, Muholi stages self-portraits that intensify skin tone through controlled contrast while using everyday materials as props, recasting objects associated with Black labor into forms of regal adornment. The series appears in the exhibition both as photographs and through recent bronze figures that extend its critique into sculptural monumentality.
How the artist works
Muholi describes themself as a ‘visual activist’, working primarily with black-and-white photography, often in series that evolve over many years. Projects like Faces and Phases and Being rely on sustained relationships, repeated sittings and collaborative authorship, placing trust and consent at the center of the practice. Instituto Moreira Salles exhibition description
Recent years have seen Muholi expand into large-format prints on aluminum, lightboxes and bronzes, as documented in Southern Guild’s list of works. These media extend familiar motifs from the photographic series into three dimensions, while keeping the emphasis on lived experience and self-representation.
Where the artist stands now
Alongside the ongoing run of Kanye Nawe in Cape Town, Muholi’s work is presented in 2026 institutional programs such as Zanele Muholi: Courageous Beauty in Rio de Janeiro, but within the current 30-day window the main confirmed focus remains the Southern Guild exhibition.
Key facts on Zanele Muholi
- Artist: Zanele Muholi
- Medium / Genre: Photography and sculpture (visual activism)
- Born: 1972, Umlazi, South Africa
- Place(s) of practice: Primarily based in South Africa, with international projects across Europe, the Americas and Africa
- Active since: Early 2000s, with early series such as Only Half the Picture produced between 2002 and 2006
- Key work groups: Faces and Phases, Somnyama Ngonyama, Only Half the Picture, Being, Brave Beauties, Mo(u)rning
- Current/last exhibition: Kanye Nawe, Southern Guild Cape Town, July 18 to September 10, 2026
- Major collections: Works by Muholi feature in public collections including Tate (London), MoMA (New York), Brooklyn Museum (New York) and other institutions focused on contemporary photography
- Awards: Hasselblad Award 2026 (Hasselblad Foundation, Gothenburg)
- Next date: Within the current 30-day window, no additional new date beyond the ongoing Kanye Nawe run is officially highlighted in primary sources
Frequently asked questions about Zanele Muholi
Where is Zanele Muholi currently on view?
The most recent major solo exhibition is Kanye Nawe at Southern Guild in Cape Town, running from July 18 to September 10, 2026, and spanning more than two decades of photographic and sculptural work.
What does the Faces and Phases archive represent?
Faces and Phases is an ongoing portrait series begun in 2006 that documents Black lesbian, transgender, queer and gender-nonconforming people, described in current texts as a large living archive built in collaboration with its participants.
Which recent recognition has Muholi received?
In 2026 Muholi was named Hasselblad Award laureate, one of photography’s most prestigious distinctions, accompanied by a substantial monetary prize, a Hasselblad camera and a dedicated exhibition program in Gothenburg.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
