Kanye Nawe

Opening at Southern Guild Cape Town on 18 July 2026, this new major solo presentation by South African visual activist and 2026 Hasselblad Award laureate Zanele Muholi includes work spanning over two decades of practice. Occupying the gallery in its entirety, the exhibition includes a densely configured installation of the seminal community portrait project Faces and Phases; intimate photographs from Only Half the Picture, Being, Mo(u)rning, LiZa, and ZaVa; new work from the ongoing self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness); and recent bronze sculptures that extend Muholi's visual activism into three dimensions.

Meaning "with you", "alongside you", or more broadly "oneness" in isiZulu, Kanye Nawe reflects a philosophy of shared presence that underpins Muholi's longstanding commitment to documenting, preserving, and celebrating Black LGBTQIA+ lives while challenging historical erasure. Opening shortly after Faces and Phases 20, an off-site presentation of the project held during the 61st Venice Biennale, the exhibition coincides with various personal and historical anniversaries that have shaped the trajectory of Muholi’s practice. Among them are 20 years since the inception of Faces and Phases (2006–ongoing), 20 years since South Africa’s Civil Union Act legalised same-sex marriage, and the 30th anniversary of South Africa's Constitution.

Central to the exhibition is Faces and Phases, widely regarded as one of the most significant visual records of Black LGBTQIA+ lives globally. Initiated in South Africa in 2006 in response to the violence and hate crimes faced by Black Queer communities, the series sought to challenge their absence and misrepresentation within public and historical records. Since then, it has expanded into a transnational project encompassing participants photographed across multiple continents. Kanye Nawe brings together early portraits made in South Africa alongside recent additions produced in London, Porto, Panama City, Los Angeles, Salvador, São Paulo, Venice, and Rio de Janeiro.Another section of the exhibition presents works from Only Half the Picture, Being, Mo(u)rning, LiZa, and ZaVa, series that explore intimacy, desire, and the complexities of Queer relationships. Together, these photographs bear witness to tenderness, vulnerability, loss, and connection, foregrounding relationships as sites of care, solidarity, and mutual recognition.

In Somnyama Ngonyama, the artist uses their own body as a site through which histories of race, labour, gender, sexuality, and representation are examined and reclaimed. Created while travelling for exhibitions, residencies, and research, the portraits function as a form of visual journaling, responding to the places Muholi inhabits and the objects and encounters that surround them. As Faces and Phases builds a living archive of community, Somnyama Ngonyama traces a parallel record of self-reflection. The works presented in Kanye Nawe include recent self-portraits made in Cape Town, Paternoster, London, Los Angeles, Panama City, Rio de Janeiro, and Venice.

Drawing on personal memory, spirituality, and the body as a vessel of both vulnerability and resilience, three large-scale bronze sculptures explore themes of protection, mourning, ancestry, and survival. Across disciplines, Muholi's practice remains rooted in the act of bearing witness, affirming dignity, self-determination, and the enduring presence of Black Queer lives.

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A press preview with the artist will take place on Saturday 18 July between 4 and 5pm, prior to the opening. There will also be accompanying programming - more details to come.


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