Zanele Muholi Brings Kanye Nawe Home

Zanele Muholi Finally Comes Home with Landmark Solo Exhibition Kanye Nawe

After captivating audiences and teaching across the world, internationally acclaimed South African visual activist and artist Zanele Muholi is bringing a major solo exhibition back home. Titled Kanye Nawe – Alongside You, the exhibition opens on 18 July 2026 at Southern Guild Cape Town and will run until 10 September 2026, offering South African audiences an opportunity to experience more than two decades of Muholi’s groundbreaking work.

Occupying the entire Southern Guild gallery at Silo 5, V&A Waterfront, Kanye Nawe presents an immersive collection of photography, sculpture and the award-winning documentary Difficult Love (2020). Together, these works create a living archive that celebrates Black Queer identity, visibility, memory, resilience and collective care while confronting histories of erasure, discrimination and violence.

A Powerful Homecoming

The exhibition represents far more than another gallery showcase—it is a deeply personal homecoming for Muholi.

Opening during the artist’s birthday month, Kanye Nawe coincides with several significant milestones. It celebrates twenty years of the influential Faces and Phases series, commemorates two decades since the loss of Muholi’s nephew Nkanyiso and friends to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and marks twenty years since South Africa’s Civil Union Act.

These personal anniversaries align with important moments in the nation’s history, including the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Women’s March, the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, and 30 years of South African democracy.

Reflecting on the significance of returning home, Muholi said:

“Coming home this year feels profound. 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.”

Two Decades of Groundbreaking Work

Kanye Nawe brings together some of Muholi’s most celebrated bodies of work, including:

• Faces and Phases
• Only Half the Picture
• Being
• Mo(u)rning
• ZaVa
• LiZa
• Somnyama Ngonyama (Hail the Dark Lioness)

The exhibition also introduces new bronze sculptures that expand Muholi’s artistic practice into three-dimensional form, exploring themes of ancestry, protection, vulnerability, identity and strength.

Faces and Phases Continues to Inspire

At the heart of the exhibition is Faces and Phases, Muholi’s ongoing portrait project launched in 2006 to document and honour Black LGBTQIA+ individuals while challenging hate crimes, prejudice and invisibility.

What began as a South African documentary project has evolved into an internationally recognised visual archive. The Cape Town exhibition features early South African portraits alongside more recent works created in cities including London, Porto, Panama City, Los Angeles, Salvador, São Paulo and Venice, demonstrating the global reach of Muholi’s vision while remaining deeply rooted in South African experiences.

Art as Education and Collective Memory

For Muholi, art extends beyond aesthetics—it serves as a powerful educational tool that preserves history and builds empathy.

Speaking about the exhibition’s purpose, Muholi shared:

“Art is a form of education. 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. Ngiyabonga Mina.”

A Rare Opportunity for South African Audiences

Following acclaimed exhibitions at leading museums and galleries around the world, and fresh from receiving the prestigious 2026 Hasselblad Award, Kanye Nawe offers South Africans a rare opportunity to experience Muholi’s expansive body of work on home soil.

The exhibition stands as both a celebration of artistic excellence and a powerful affirmation of Black Queer stories within South Africa‘s cultural landscape, inviting visitors to reflect on identity, community, remembrance and belonging.