Zanele Muholi

Zanele Muholi — Selected portraits
09.08–10.14.2017
Room 1

Montreal, August 8, 2017 – MOMENTA | Biennale de l’image (formerly Le Mois de la Photo à Montréal) presents, in collaboration with Centre CLARK, Zanele Muholi – Selected Portraits.

Zanele Muholi (South Africa) takes inspiration from her own experience to defend and unveil the visual history of the LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexed) community. Her portraits and self-portraits from the series Miss D’vine (2007), Of Love and Loss (2013), Somnyama Ngonyama (2014–current), and Faces and Phases (2006–current) are characterized by a frank and direct gaze. Their powerful impact can be attributed to the total confidence expressed in her images and the nuanced treatment of the themes. Whether she photographs the performer Miss D’vine posing in fantasy costumes that upend conventional notion of gender, or archives the present lived experience of black lesbians and transgender people from South Africa and elsewhere, the artist challenges racism and reverses stereotypes of how the black body has been represented in history.

Zanele Muholi (1972–) is a visual activist and photographer born in Umlazi, Durban, and living in Johannesburg. She co-founded the Forum for Empowerment of Women (FEW) in 2002, and in 2009 founded Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual (activist) media. Muholi’s self-proclaimed mission is “to re-write a black queer and trans visual history of South Africa for the world to know of our resistance and existence at the height of hate crimes in SA and beyond.” She has had solo exhibitions including at the Mead Art Museum (Amherst), Gallatin Galleries (New York), Open Eye Gallery (Liverpool), and the Brooklyn Museum (New York). Recent group shows include Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris, 2017) and Personae at the FotoFocus Biennial, held at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (Cincinnati, 2016). Awards include the ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism (2016). She is represented by the Stevenson Gallery (Cape Town, Johannesburg) and the Yancey Richardson Gallery (New York).

The exhibition has been realised in collaboration with Centre CLARK.