Research Guides: Art on the Davidson College Campus: Featured Sculptors and Artists: Zanele Muholi

About Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi (b. 1972) is a South African artist best known for their black and white photography. Self-identifying as a visual activist, Muholi seeks to represent the beauty and strength of Black LGBTQ+ identities while fighting against the stigma and violent prejudice against their community. Through a variety of photographic series and exhibitions, Muholi's striking, inspirational work strives to "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."

For more information about Zanele Muholi, please see the following:

Ntozakhe II, Parktown

Zanele Muholi, Ntozakhe II, Parktown, from the Somnyama Ngonyama series, 2016. Photography. Davidson College.

Van Every/Smith Galleries to Acquire Zanele Muholi Self-Portrait, "Ntozakhe II, Parktown"

Works by Zanele Muholi

Yancey Richardson
Bio, works, videos, exhibitions, and more on Muholi from Yancey Richardson in New York.
Stevenson
Bio, exhibitions, news, and publications from Muholi from Stevenson.
Maison Européenne de la Photographie
Bio, images, and info on Muholi's solo exhibition at the MEP in Paris.
Stedelijk Museum
Images, video, and description of Muholi's solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
Institute of Contemporary Art
Images and videos from Muholi's series "Faces and Phases" at the ICA in Boston, MA.
Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions
Bio, images, articles, and more on Muholi from Archives of Women Artists Research & Exhibitions in Paris, France.
Artsy
140+ images of Muholi's artwork from Artsy.

Articles about Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi: Art and Activism
Interview on Muholi's political activist works and exhibition at the Gropius Bau from the British Journal of Photography by Hannah Abel-Hirsch in 2021.
‘The Archive Means We Are Counted in History.’ Zanele Muholi on Documenting Black, Queer Life in South Africa
Article on Muholi's photographs and visual activism by Suyin Haynes from Time Magazine in 2020.
Zanele Muholi Walks In With the Ancestors
Article on Muholi's works, identity, and exhibit at the Tate Modern in London by Pumla Dineo Gqola from the New York Times in 2020.
Yes, But Why?
Interactive article with images and audio on the impact of Muholi's "bold and confrontational... yet tender, beautiful and loving" works by Kerryn Greenberg from WePresent and Tate in 2019.
Dark Play: The Ethnographic Archive as Site of Embodiment in Zanele Muholi’s Somnyana Ngonyama Series
Journal article on the author's responses to Muholi's "Somnyana Ngonyama" photographic series by Leora Farber from the Visual Anthropology Review in 2020.
Artist as Activist
Article on Muholi's exhibition "Zanele Muholi: Eye Me" by Caroline Harris from the SFMOMA in San Francisco, CA in 2024.
Zanele Muholi on Photography as Social Practice
Interview with Muholi on their career, voice, and artistic resistance by Jonathan Carver Moore from Frieze on 2022.
An Interview with Zanele Muholi
Interview with Zanele on their career, activism, and artistic process by Íde Corley from Wasafiri in 2016.

Books about Zanele Muholi

The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
Book on the Black female writers and artists of the African diaspora, including Muholi, and their queer creative practices that have largely gone unstudied in Western literature (published in 2021).
Women and Photography in Africa: Creative Practices and Feminist Challenges by Darren Newbury, Lorena Rizzo, and Kylie Thomas
Book on female photographers in Africa that aims to raise "critical questions about race, gender and the history of photography... [that] provides a model for interdisciplinary feminist approaches for scholars of art history, visual studies and African history" (published in 2021, quotation from book description).
Not Your Mother's Mammy: the Black Domestic Worker in Transatlantic Women's Media by Tracey Lorraine Walters
Book on the depiction and reconstruction of domestic workers by Black artists, including Muholi, to bring power and voice to these often overlooked and victimized individuals (published in 2021).
Reclaiming the L-Word: Sappho's Daughters out in Africa by Alleyn Diesel
Collection of stories from South Africans, including Muholi, on their lesbian identities, which altogether emphasize the "urgent need for us to stop hate crime and to create a safe society for all LGBT South Africans" (published in 2011, quotation from book description).
Being an Artist: Artist Interviews with Art21 by Tina Kukielski and Susan Sollins
Collection of interviews with contemporary artists, including Muholi, on their creative careers, processes, and roles as artists, from the educational nonprofit Art21 (published in 2018).
Under Construction: Performing Critical Identity by Marie-Anne Kohl
Book on a variety of artists, including Muholi, whose perceptions and performances of critical identity reflect the complexities of identity theories and empower global diversity (published in 2021).
Queer Theory in Film and Fiction by Ernest Emenyo̲nu, Patricia T. Emenyonu, Adélékè Adéẹ̀kọ́, andObi Nwakanma
Book on the works of African artists, including Muholi and their Films4peace, that provides "provocative (re-)readings of texts" through a queer lens to highlight "formerly erased sexualities and contemporary sexual expression among Africans on the continent and abroad" (published 2018, quotation from book description).
Queer by David Getsy
Book on the queer creative practices of a wide variety of artists, including Muholi, who use "the concept of queer as a site of political and institutional critique, as a framework to develop new families and histories, as a spur to action, and as a basis from which to declare inassimilable difference" (published in 2016, quotation from book description).

Exhibition Catalogs from Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi
Catalog of Muholi's solo exhibition at Tate Modern in London in 2024.
Zanele Muholi
Catalog of Muholi's solo exhibit at the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern in Valencià, Spain in 2022.
Zanele Muholi: Eye Me
Press release of Muholi's solo exhibit at the SFMOMA in San Francisco, CA in 2024.

Videos of Zanele Muholi

films4peace 2013: Zanele Muholi short film by the artist on the horrific violence towards the LGBTQI+ community in South Africa from films4peace in 2013.

Zanele Muholi - 'In My World, Every Human is Beautiful' interview with the artist on their exhibitions of visual activism from Tate in 2020.

Zanele Muholi in "Johannesburg" - Season 9 - "Art in the 21st Century" video with the artist on their photography and motivations from Art21 in 2023.

Zanele Muholi on "Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness" at Seattle Art Museum interview with artist on their political work and identity-based exhibition at the SAM in 2019.

Zanele Muholi, Visual Activist video with the artist as they work on their gender-politics photographs from Human Rights Watch in 2015.

Artist Talk | Zanele Muholi lecture by the artist on their photographic works featured at the Princeton University Art Museum in 2017.