photograph: Andrew Thomas Berry
Billie Zangewa works primarily with raw silk offcuts in intricate hand-stitched collages, creating figurative compositions that explore her intersectional identity in the contemporary context and challenge the historical stereotyping, objectification and exploitation of the black female body. Working in a flat, colourful style, she depicts narratives concerned with experience: both personal and universal. These narratives do not make grand gestures or even overt political statements, but rather focus on mundane domestic preoccupations; universal themes connecting us to each other. Almost always the protagonist in her works, Zangewa becomes a heroine whose daily life is revealed through the scenes she illustrates.
Zangewa has exhibited extensively at institutions both locally and internationally, including at the Centre Pompidou (2020), Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (2019), Norval Foundation (2018), MASS MoCA (2017), Stedelijk Museum (2017), Studio Museum Harlem (2016), Iziko South African National Gallery (2016), Johannesburg Art Gallery (2016), Guggenheim Bilbao (2015), WIELS (2015), La Maison Rouge (2013) and the Menil Collection (2012). Her work is represented in several notable private and public collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom. In 2018, Zangewa was selected as the Featured Artist for the FNB Joburg Art Fair.
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curriculum vitae
1973 Born in Blantyre, Malawi
education
1995 BFA Printmaking Major, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa
solo exhibitions
2021 Flesh and Blood, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, South Korea
2021 Running Water, Lehmann Maupin, London, UK
2021 Thread for a Web Begun, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA
2020 Wings of Change, Lehmann Maupin, New York, USA
2020 Soldier of Love, Galerie Templon, Paris, France
2010 Black Line, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 Stitch by Stitch, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2005 Hot in the City, Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
group exhibitions
2021 Elles, from A to Z, 10th Triennial of Contemporary Prints, MBAL, Museum of Fine Arts Le Locle, Switzerland
2021 I have made a place, Norval Foundation, Cape Town
2021 and I will wear you in my heart of heart, FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA
2021 The Power of My Hands, Le Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
Paris, France
2021 This is Not Africa - unlearn what you have learned, ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Aarhus, Denmark
2020 Global(e) Resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2020 Alpha Crucis – Contemporary African Art, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway
2019 I Am … Contemporary Women Artists of Africa, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, USA
2019 Mating Birds Vol.2, curated by Gabi Ngcobo with Sumayya Menezes & Zinhle Khumalo, KZNSA Gallery, Durban, South Africa
2018 Soft Power, curated by Julie Crenn, Transpalette, Bourges, France
2018 Second Life, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morroco
2018 Pulling at Threads, Norval Foundation, Cape Town, South Africa
2018 Making Africa, Alburqueque Museum, Alburqueque, USA
2018 Ladies by Ladies, Space Art Absolute, Paris, France
2017 17, blank projects, Cape Town, South Africa
2017 Africa, Raccontare un Mondo, Padiglione de’Arte Contemporanea Milano, Milan, Italy
2017 Et Dieu Crèa la Femme, Maison Guerlain, Paris, France
2017 Essential Landscape, MACAAL, Marrakech, Morocco
2017 Making Africa, Atlanta Museum of High Art, USA
2017 Stedelijk BASE, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 Et Dieu Crèa la Femme, Maison Guerlain, Paris, France
2017 The Half-Life of Love, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, USA
2017 Frans Masereel and Contemporary Art: Images of Resistance, Mu.ZEE, Ostende, Belgium
2017 Amongst Ourselves, CIAP, Hasselt, Belgium
2017 Lucy’s Iris, Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
2017 Back to the Self, Marabouparken Konsthall, Sundbyberg, Sweden
2016 A Constellation, Studio Museum Harlem, New York City, USA
2016 Making Africa, CCCB Barcelona, Spain and Kunsthal Rotterdam, Netherlands
2016 Lucy’s Iris, MUSAC Leon, Spain and MDAC Rochechouart, France
2016 Africa forecast: Fashioning Africa, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2016 The Substance of Things Not Seen, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2016 Women’s Work, Iziko National Gallery of South Africa, Cape Town, South Africa
2015 Body Talk, curated by Koyo Kouoh, Wiels, Brussels, Belgium; Lunds Kunsthalle, Sweden and Frac Lorraine, France
2015 Odysseys Africaines, curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi, The Brass, Brussels, Belgium
2015 Making Africa, Vitra Design Museum, Germany, and Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
2015 Africa, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
2014 How Far How Near, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2013 My Joburg, Maison Rouge, Paris, France and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany
2013 Hollandaise, curated by Koyo Kouoh, Raw Material Company, Dakar, Senegal
2012 Africa Africa, Abbaye Saint Andre, Centre d’Arts Contemporain, Meymac, France
2012 Progress of Love, Menil Collection, Houston, Texas, USA
2012 Hollandaise, SMBA, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011 Kaddou Diggen, Curated by Christine Eyene, Galerie Le Manége, Dakar, Senegal
2011 Galerie Hussenot, Curated by Andre eMagnin, Paris, France
2011 En Toute Innocence, Subtilités du Corps, curated by Christine Eyene, Galerie Imane Farès, Paris, France
2010 SPace, Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa
2010 Arte Invisible, curated by Elvira Dyangane Ose, ARCO, Madrid, Spain
2010 Transformations, JAG, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 Anima Animal, Fondation Blachère, Apt, France
2009 Creativity Meets Science, Spier, Stellenbosch, South Africa
2008 Stitch by Stitch, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2008 Re/Presentaciones: Ellas, curated by Danielle Tilkin, Casa Africa, Las Palmas, Grand Canaria, Spain
2008 Vibrant Exposure, Amaridian Gallery, New York, USA
2007 Untitled, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007 Afronism, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2007 Social Fabric, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
2006 Nie Meer, De Warande Kunsthalle, Turnhout, Belgium
2006 Dak’Art, Dakar Biennale, Senegal
2005 Hot in the City, Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2004 Aardklop Festival, Absa Top Ten, Potchefstroom, South Africa
1999 Printwork, Rhodes University retrospective, Albany Museum, Grahamstown, South Africa
1997 Artists in Botswana, National Gallery of Botswana, Gaborone
1996 Untitled, Gallery Anne, Gaborone, Botswana
residencies + awards
2018 Featured Artist, FNB Joburg Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009 Bronx Museum, New York City, USA
2006 Air Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium
2005 Cite International Des Art, Paris, France
2006 Awarded Res’artis residency with Air Antwerpen at the Dak’art Dakar Biannale
2004 Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award
1997 Artists in Botwana Award Printmaking
public and institutional collections
Tate London
Centre Pompidou
Smithsonian National Museum of African Art
Rhodes University Alumni
Johannesburg Art Gallery
SMBA Amsterdam
Spelman Museum of Art, Atlanta Georgia
Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, USA
Reserve Bank of Botswana
