Since photographer Zanele Muholi decided to turn the camera on themselves with the series ‘Somnyama Ngonyama’, they have created a series of portraits in which they are both participant and image-maker. Now, Muholi is set to open two solo exhibitions this month, one presented by Moreira Salles Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil and the other by the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia, USA.
Zanele Muholi: Courageous Beauty
IMS Paulista – Sao Paolo, Brazil
22 February – 15 June 2025
This retrospective exhibition, curated by Daniele Queiroz, Thyago Nogueira and assistant curator Ana Vitório, will bring together works from Muholi’s main photographic series: ‘Faces and Phases’, ‘Somnyama Ngomyama (Hailt the Dark Lioness)’, ‘Brave Beauties’ as well as previously unpublished works produced in Brazil. Muholi is one of several seminal figures in world photography to hold an exhibition at IMS Paulista in 2025. Other artists include Gordon Parks (USA), known for documenting the daily lives of Black people during the regime of social segregation in the US; Agnès Varda (Belgium), a filmmaker who began her career as a photographer; and Luiz Braga (Brazil), author of a vast body of work that reveals the diversity of the Amazon territory and its inhabitants. In addition, IMS will present an exhibition of photographs produced by the Paiter Suruí indigenous people of Rondônia, showing their trajectory and daily lives through historical and contemporary images.
Zanele Muholi
SCAD – Georgia, USA
24 February – 6 July 2025
Presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2025 and curated by SCAD Museum of Art curator Ben Tollefson, Muholi includes several landmark bodies of work such as ‘Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness)’, an ongoing series of self-portraits. This series sees Muholi don everyday items like clothespins, rugs and plastic bags, which are transformed through unexpected arrangements, reflecting both personal and collective narratives of race and body politics. The exhibition also features selections from ‘Brave Beauties’, a series highlighting trans women and nonbinary people in empowered poses, and ‘Faces and Phases’, a series that started in 2006 in response to the violence and discrimination faced by Black lesbians in South Africa. Muholi has since photographed subjects across the world, including most recently, in Los Angeles, the UK and Brazil. Additionally, a never-before-seen group of ‘Somnyama’ images will be presented in lightbox format. Through these works, Muholi re-envisions Black Queer representation, while simultaneously challenging pervasive stereotypes and offering an empathetic and emboldened perspective of the human condition.
Muholi has been named thedeFINE ART honoree for 2025 and will deliver two honoree lectures following the opening of the exhibition. The first takes place on the 26th of February in Savannah at Trustees Theatre and will see Muholi in conversation with MoMA Black Arts Council Executive Committee Member, GuildHall Trustee and ‘Cerebral Women Art Talks’ podcast host Phyllis Hollis. The second takes place on the 27th of February in Atlanta at FORTY where Muholi will be joined by writer, editor and photographer Carla J. Williams. Williams also contributed to the first volume of ‘Somnyama Ngonyama.’ Both events are free and open to the public, and presented as part of SCAD deFINE ART 2025, which is an annual event at SCAD showcasing both emerging and established artists through exhibitions, lectures, performances and public events.
