Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail The Dark Lioness

Exhibiting more than 80 self-portraits, CVA presents the artwork of celebrated visual activist Zanele Muholi (South African, b. 1972) who uses their body as a canvas to confront the deeply personal politics of race and representation in the visual archive. Their ongoing series Somnyama Ngonyama, which translates to ‘Hail The Dark Lioness’ from isiZulu, one of the official languages of South Africa, playfully employs the conventions of classical painting, fashion photography, and the familiar tropes of ethnographic imagery to rearticulate contemporary identity politics. Each black and white self-portrait asks critical questions about social (in)justice, human rights, and contested representations of the Black body. This exhibition was organized by Autograph ABP and curated by Renée Mussai.