iMbewu (The Seed)

iMbewu (The Seed), a landmark exhibition surveying the practice of ceramic artist Zizipho Poswa, will open at Southern Guild New York on 26 June 2026.

Derived from the isiXhosa word for “seed” – a potent symbol of transformation, continuity, and becoming – the exhibition brings together works produced across an almost ten year span, alongside new sculptures that expand upon the cultural narratives, symbols, and material investigations that have shaped Poswa’s artistic language. Rather than framing this moment as a point of resolution, iMbewu understands the artist’s practice as something living and generative: each body of work containing within it the possibility of what is yet to come.

Rooted in the lived experiences, ceremonial practices, and matriarchal knowledge systems of Southern African women, Poswa’s sculptures are acts of reverence. They honour the tenderness, ingenuity, intersectional beauty, and daily rituals of cultural preservation carried by women across
generations. Born in Mthatha in South Africa’s Eastern Cape and originally trained in textile design, Poswa approaches clay with an instinctive sensitivity to rhythm, pattern, and texture. Retaining the tactility of the hand, each form is hand-coiled and realised through an embodied
process that mirrors the themes of endurance and care at the heart of her work.

A recurring conceptual thread throughout her practice is 'Umthwalo' – the isiXhosa word for “load” and the custom where women carry heavy items atop their heads. Ongoing since 2020, the Umthwalo series has become an extended meditation on the visible and invisible responsibilities borne by women. Drawing on scenes witnessed throughout her upbringing, Poswa elevates acts of carrying into architectural totems that honour what she describes as the “life-sustaining roles that African women play.”

Across bodies of work inspired by ‘lobola’ negotiations, Pan-African hairstyling traditions, ceremonial objects and protective amulets, and maternal rituals, Poswa repeatedly returns to a rich repertoire of symbolic motifs – cow horns, braided coiffures, stacked vessels, gathered loads,
hair combs, ‘ukhamba’ beer pots, and bronze crests – through which the intimate rituals of daily life are transformed into monuments of dignity, resilience, and power.

Clay is not simply treated as material, but as archive. Collectively, iMbewu charts the continued evolution of Poswa’s hand while reflecting the generative logic that underpins her practice. Across a decade of committed making, she continues to honour the women of her community as architects and custodians of collective memory and communal life.

This marks the artist’s sixth solo with Southern Guild and her first presentation in the gallery’s new Tribeca space. The exhibition will be accompanied by a monograph published by Southern Guild, tracing the evolution of Poswa’s practice over the past decade. Her work is held in the
collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Princeton University Art Museum, the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, the Schulting Art Collection, and the collection of HRH Franz, Duke of Bavaria, among others.

Poswa has participated in exhibitions at institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, LACMA, the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco), Kunsthal KAdE (Amersfoort), and Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice), as well as presentations with Jeffrey Deitch (Los Angeles), Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago), and Galerie Italienne (Paris). Her work is also included in the forthcoming publication Black Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art (2027) by Dr. Jareh Das.


Public programmming will accompany the exhibition, including a book launch/signing and panel discussion with the artist, set to take place in the first week following the opening - further details to be made available soon.