By Sitha Maliwa:
After captivating audiences from New York to Venice and earning some of the world’s highest honours in contemporary photography, internationally acclaimed South African visual activist and artist Zanele Muholi is finally bringing a major solo exhibition home.
Opening on 18 July at Southern Guild Cape Town, Kanye Nawe – Alongside You is more than an art exhibition. It is a homecoming decades in the making – one that celebrates identity, honours memory and reclaims stories that have too often been pushed to the margins of history.
Occupying the entire Southern Guild gallery at Silo 5 in the V&A Waterfront, the exhibition presents more than two decades of Muholi’s groundbreaking work through photography, sculpture and the award-winning documentary Difficult Love. Together, the works form a powerful visual archive documenting the lives, struggles and triumphs of Black LGBTQIA+ communities in South Africa and across the world.
For many South Africans, it will be the first opportunity to experience the breadth of Muholi’s internationally celebrated career without leaving the country.
The exhibition opens during a year rich with symbolism, both personal and national.
It marks twenty years since Muholi began the landmark Faces and Phases series, a project that has become one of the most significant visual records of Black Queer life in the world. It is also twenty years since the artist lost nephew Nkanyiso and close friends to the HIV/AIDS epidemic – a deeply personal loss that continues to shape the emotional landscape of the work.
These milestones coincide with South Africa’s commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March, the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, thirty years of democracy and twenty years since the Civil Union Act became law.
“Coming home this year feels profound,” Muholi said.
“South Africa is remembering the Women’s March of 1956, fifty years since Soweto and thirty years of democracy. At the same time, I celebrate twenty years of Faces and Phases and my own birthday month. Kanye Nawe is about being together, about oneness. I am grateful to share this work with my people.”
Named after the isiZulu phrase meaning “with you”, “alongside you” or “oneness”, Kanye Nawe speaks to connection, solidarity and shared humanity.
Visitors will encounter some of Muholi’s most influential bodies of work, including Only Half the Picture, Being, Mo(u)rning, ZaVa, LiZa and the internationally acclaimed self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness). The exhibition also debuts new bronze sculptures exploring themes of ancestry, protection, vulnerability and resilience.
At its heart is Faces and Phases, the portrait series that began in 2006 in response to hate crimes and the invisibility experienced by Black LGBTQIA+ people. What started as a South African project has evolved into a global archive of courage, dignity and resistance.
The Cape Town exhibition brings together early South African portraits with more recent images created in cities including London, Los Angeles, São Paulo, Venice, Porto, Panama City and Salvador, reflecting the growing international reach of Muholi’s work while remaining rooted in South African realities.
Muholi believes art carries a responsibility beyond aesthetics.
“Art is a form of education,” the artist said. “Through these images we teach ourselves and others to see, to remember and to care. Every portrait, every sculpture carries a story that belongs to our collective history. This is how we build dignity and understanding for generations to come.”
The exhibition follows Muholi’s receipt of the prestigious 2026 Hasselblad Award, widely regarded as one of photography’s highest honours, further cementing the artist’s place among the world’s leading contemporary visual practitioners.
Yet despite global recognition, Kanye Nawe represents something far more personal.
It is a return to the communities that inspired the work, to the country whose complex history shaped its vision and to audiences who now have the opportunity to engage with one of South Africa’s most influential artistic voices on home ground.
As South Africa reflects on its past and imagines its future, Muholi’s long-awaited homecoming offers more than an exhibition. It is an invitation to confront history, celebrate resilience and recognise the power of representation in building a more inclusive society.
Exhibition Details
Kanye Nawe – Alongside You
Dates: 18 July -10 September 2026
Venue: Southern Guild, Silo 5, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Admission: Free – @NewsSA_Online
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