The Cape Town High Court has ordered South African photographer Trevor Stuurman and THK Gallery to close the artist’s latest exhibition Your Beauty Is Our Concern following Intellectual Property (IP) infringement. Your Beauty is Our Concern – an exhibition concerned with the act of making oneself beautiful – a state of being sometimes required for one to claim their place in society – opened on the 24th of April 2025 at THK Gallery Cape Town. Since then, a heated dispute has ignited in South Africa’s art and photography world, drawing sharp lines between one of the country’s most celebrated visual artists and a collective of emerging women photographers.
At the centre of the controversy are accusations of plagiarism directed at Trevor Stuurman over the aforementioned exhibition, by Woza Sisi Collective, a female-led organisation dedicated to increasing visibility and opportunities for diverse women artists in all art forms. Artist, curator and co-founder of the Woza Sisi Collective, Tsholofelo Kodisang, alleged that Stuurman’s exhibition borrows heavily and without permission from a previous body of work developed by her and three other photographers under the title Your Beauty Is My Concern.
According to Kodisang, she became aware of Stuurman’s exhibition with THK Gallery on the 26th of April 2025 through an Instagram post and immediately picked up that there could be potential intellectual property infringement. Kodisang and team sent a letter of demand to Stuurman demanding for immediate removal of his exhibition from viewing by the public as well as from all associated digital and promotional platforms. Further, they demanded a formal and public written apology by Stuurman acknowledging the unauthorised use of their concept as well a payment of 30% of the gross proceeds of each sale, together with legal costs incurred in pursuing this matter.
The Woza Sisi Collective was formed around Woza Sisi, which is an ongoing visual and documentary project by Dahlia Maubane that began in 2012. In 2024 Kodisang curated Your Beauty Is My Concern as an exhibition and a publication, showcasing the work of four female-identifying photographers responding to Maubane’s research and photography. The contributing photographers are Simphiwe Julia Thabede, Lusanda Mdluli and Fiona Davhana. According to Kodisang, the parallels between their work and Stuurman’s are more than thematic, surpassing a generic idea of beauty where black hair is the topic, it is the use of their own exhibition title, which was chosen intentionally to reflect the deeply personal, cultural and communal concerns their work engages.
In response to the new exhibition titled Your Beauty Is Our Concern, Kodisang expressed the emotional and professional damaging impact that the plagiarism of their work has had on the Woza Sisi Collective, which further speaks to the creative integrity in South Africa’s art world. Kodisang emphasised that the stakes are much higher than artistic credit, saying, “The message we want to convey is clear: our voices, stories and creative labour matter and they deserve to be respected. Plagiarism is not just a legal or academic issue, it is a violation of identity, integrity and community.”
Stuurman, however, denied any suggestion of plagiarism and has publicly defended his exhibition and his artistic intentions, citing that Black beauty has always been a central theme in his work, going all the way back to street-style photography which evolved into editorial and commercial projects and eventually matured into fine art photography. He went on to say that Your Beauty is Our Concern was intentionally curated to reflect spaces where beauty is cultivated. In a battle to protect his reputation, Stuurman threatened to take the legal action against the claims made by Woza Sisi criticising Your Beauty Is Our Concern, a case independent of the IP claim.
On the 21st of May 2025 the Cape Town High Court ordered Trevor Stuurman and THK Gallery to shut down the artist’s exhibition Your Beauty Is Our Concern which was set to run until the 30th of May 2025, and remove all promotional material, ruling in favour of Woza Sisi. The court gave Stuurman 24 hours to remove all social media and public posts labeled Your Beauty Is Our Concern. The second part of Woza Sisi’s letter of demand also included demand of a public apology, 30% of the profits made from the exhibition, as well as a demand that Stuurman covers Woza Sisi’s legal costs in pursuing this matter.
The Cape Town High Court has restrained Stuurman and team from selling, transferring or disposing of any artworks associated with Your Beauty Is Our Concern while the court decides on the ruling of the second part of Woza Sisi’s letter of demand. Stuurman has since taken down a lot of the social media posts on the exhibition. For Woza Sisi, this marks a powerful and affirming win for all black women creatives who have had their work used without credit or consent.
