Buhlebezwe Siwani (b.1987, SA) is a visual artist that lives and works between Cape Town and Amsterdam. She completed her BAFA at the Wits School of Arts in Johannesburg in 2011 and her MFA at the Michaelis School of Fine Arts in 2015.
Siwani works with performance, photography, sculpture, and installation. Siwani’s work interrogates the patriarchal framing of the Black female body and Black female experience within the South African context. As a Sangoma, a spiritual healer that works within the space of the death and the living, Siwani focused her artistic practice into rituality and the relationship between Christianity and African spirituality. Each of her projects deals with the relationship between ancestral rituals and modern life, touching social and political topics, such as the female body, Black communities, histories of colonisation and the paradoxes of our contemporary society, all seen through the filter of the artist’s own biography and experience.
Buhlebezwe Siwani is shortlisted for the Prix de Rome (2025), was nominated for the Future Generation Art Prize (2024) and was the winner of the 2021 Standard Bank Young Artists Awards in the category of Visual Arts. Solo exhibitions include: Intsomi, No Man’s Art Gallery (2025); ulwela amaza, Rozenstraat - a rose is a rose, Amsterdam (2025); iYeza, Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg (2023); Amanzi angena endlini, Madragoa, Lisbon (2022); Impilo Inegama, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam (2022); Dedisa ubumnyama, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns (2021), group exhibitions include: Good Mom/Bad Mom, Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2025); Manifesto 15 (2024); 14th Gwangju Biennial, Gwangju (2023); Chrysalis, The Butterfly Dream, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva (2023); A Clearing in the Forest, TATE Modern, London (2022).
Buhlebezwe Siwani, het Parool 2022. By Koos Breukel.Education
2015 MFA, Michaelis School of Fine Arts, Cape Town, SA 2011 BFA, (Hons), Wits School of Arts, Johannesburg, SA
Solo Exhibitions
26 Fundatie Forward, Museum de Fundatie, NL
2025 Intsomi, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam, NL
2025 CAAC, Seville, SP
2025 Solo show, Appleton square, Lisbon, PT
2024 Ulwela amaza,’a rose is a rose is a rose’ - Rozenstraat, Amsterdam, NL
2023 Standard Bank Visual Arts Prize presentation, Johannesburg, SA
2022 Amanzi angena endini, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, PT
2022 Standard Bank Visual Arts Prize presentation, Grahamstown, SA
2022 Impilo Inegama, No Man’s Art Gallery, NL
2021 ukuqhaqha, Camera Work, Ravenna, IT
2021 Dedisa Ubumnyama, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, AU
2020 Inkanyamba, Galeria Municipal de Almada, Almada, PT
2019 Othunjiweyo, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon,PT 2018 iNcence, NMAG, Amsterdam, NL
2018 Qab’Imbola, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2018 Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Solo booth, Cape Town, SA
2017 The House, Twil Art Studios, Johannesburg, SA
2016 Ingxowa yegqwirhakazi, WHATIFTHEWORLD, Cape Town, SA
2015 Imfihlo, Graduate Exhibition, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 61st Venice Biennale, ‘In Minor Keys’, curated by Koyo Kouoh, Venice, IT (upcoming)
2026 Warmoes Biennale, Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder, Amsterdam, NL. 2025 Prix de Rome, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, NL
2025 Art Antwerp, No Man’s Art Gallery, Antwerp, BE
2025 Fantastic Creatures, Museum VAn Bommel Van Dam, NL
2025 Transatlantic Slavery Memorial Monument unveiling, Den Haag, NL
2025 Good mom / Bad Mom, unraveling the mother myth, Centraal Museum Utrecht, NL
2024 Bitter Sweet, Rietveld Pavillion, Amersfoort, NL
2024 Manifesta 15, Barcelona, SP
2024 Transfeminisms, Mimosa House, London, UK
2024 Decolonising botany, Museum De Casteelse Poort, Wageningen, NL
2024 Regenerative Future, Foundation Thalie, Brussels, BE
2023 Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, The Institute, Singapore, SG
2023 Malta Biennale, Malta, MLT
2023 Melbourne Art fair, Melbourne, AUS
2023 My Oma, Kunstinstituut Melly, Rotterdam, NL
2023 At Heaven’s Edge, Krona Museum, Uden, NL
2023 Seekers, Seers Soothsayers, Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town, SA
2023 Cycle, Portal, Path, Nest, The Hague, NL 2023 Frans Hals Museum, Display of Permanent Collection, Haarlem, NL
2022 Soft and weak like water, 14th Gwangju Biennale, KR
2022 International Biennale of Casablanca, Morocco
2022 No Man’s Art Gallery Mexico City, MX
2022 Where Shall We Plant the Placenta?, Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam, NL
2022 I Could Eat You, Casa da Cultura, Comporta, PT
2022 National Arts Festival, Makhanda, SA
2022 The Body Keeps the Score, Kunstenlab, Deventer, NL
2022 New Harvest, EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam Toronto Biennale, Toronto, CA
2022 Raw, Museum het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, NL
2022 Amahubo, Spier light festival, Cape Town, SA
2022 A clearing in the forest, Tate Modern, London, UK
2022 Rethinking Nature, Madre Museum, Naples, IT
2022 Amahubo, Iziko, Cape Town, SA
2022 All Eyes, AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, NL
2021 Goddesses Of Healing, M.Bassy, Hamburg, GE
2021 Friendship.Nature.Culture. Daimler Art Collection, Berlin, DE
2021 Vroom Vroom, BISO biennale, Ouagadougou, BF
2021 Any Given Sunday, Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, SA
2021 Avalanche, Pal Project, Paris, France Homework, Galeria Madragoa, PT
2021 The Power Of My Hands, MAM VP, Paris, FR
2021 Sonsbeek 20-24, Force Time Distance On Labour and its Sonic Ecologies, Arnhem, NL
2021 Jorge Perez Collection, El Spacio twenty three, Miami, US
2021 Casablanca Biennale, Casablanca, MA
2021 Afro Perspectives, El Espacio 23, Miami, FL
2021 Living, Forgiving, Remembering, Museum Arnhem, NL
2020 Now Look Here, Amsterdam, NL
2020 If Yesterday was Tomorrow What Is Today, Bode Projects, Berlin, DE
2020 Materiality, Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2020 Viral portraits, Moderna galerija/Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, SL
2020 Woordfees, Stellenbosch, SA
2020 Enemy of Progress, Bern, CH
2019 Art and Cosmology, JAG, Johannesburg, SA
2019 Bamako Encounters, Bamako, MLI Cosmopolis #2, Centre Pompidou, Paris, FR
2019 14th Curitiba Biennial, Curitiba, BR 2019 OurSelfie, Mo Museum, Vilinius, LT
2019 Present Passing: South by South East, Osage Gallery, HK
2019 Film Festival: Romano, Löffel, Siwani, Galeria Studio, Warsaw, PL
2018 17/18, Bode Projects, Hamburg, DE
2018 The Eye Sees Not Itself, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, US
2018 White Blood Blue Night, CAC La Traverse, Alfortville, FR
2018 Tell Freedom, Kunsthal KaDE, Amersfoort, NL
2018 Condo at Madroga, Sadie Coles HQ, London, UK
2018 Continental Drift, Cairns Art Gallery, Queensland, AU
2017 Encima, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, PT
2017 Ano zero´17 Biennale, Coimbra, PT
2017 Michaelis Master’s Show, Michaelis Galleries, Cape Town, SA
2017 O Ceu Dos Obliques, Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, PT
2017 BUHLEBEZWE SIWANI Uktshona kuka Mendi, Center for African Studies Gallery, Cape Town, SA
2017 Dear History: It’s Not Me, It’s You, Bode Projects, Hamburg, DE
2017 Deep Memory, Kalmar Art Museum, Kalmar, SE
2017 Being There, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR
2017 Being There, Kalmar Art Museum, SE 2016 iQhiya Group Show, AVA, Cape Town, SA
2016 Figure, Blank Projects, Cape Town, SA
Performances
2024 Time Crystals, Performing Sovereignty, PAKT, Amsterdam, NL
2023 Phelele, Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva, CH
2020 Indlovukazi, Woordfees, Stellenbosch, SA
2020 Enemy of Progress, Bern, CH
2020 Bagamile, Woordfees, Stellenbosch, SA
2019 Belluard Festival, CH Sites of Memory, Amsterdam, NL
2018 "those ghels", Santarcangelo festival, IT
2018 Ngisacela Uk'thula, Company Gardens, Cape Town, SA
2017 uKhongolose, Appleton Square, Lisbon, PT
2017 RTTC, TAAC, Observatory, Cape Town, SA 2017 "those ghels", Spielart festival, Munich, DE
2017 "those ghels", Theater Spektakel, Zürich, CH
2017 Jikijela, iQhiya, Documenta 14, Kassel, DE
2017 Africa Raccontare un Mondo, Milan, IT
2017 The Portrait, iQhiya, Documenta 14, Athens, GR
Publications
2020 „Buhlebezwe Siwani", Elephant, October
2020 „Buhlebezwe Siwani. The South Atrican multi-disciplinary artist discusses ubungoma and her ideas of home", NATAAL, by Miriam Bouteba, January
2019 „Buhlebezwe Siwani at the Galeria Madragoa in Lisbon", Wall Street International Magazine, April
2018 „Silent and Complex Histories: In conversation with Buhlebezwe Siwani", Arthrob, by Sikhumbuzo Makandula, November
2018 „BUHLEBEZWE SIWANI: QAB'IMBOLA", Omenka, November
2018 „Stories against historical erasure - Tell Freedom. 15 South African artists", Metropolis M, by Nicole Sciarone, Aprill
Residencies
2020 Cite des Arts, Paris, FR
2017 Het Vijfde Seizoen, Amersfoort, NL
2016 Rote Fabrik, Pro Helevetia Residency, Zurich, CH
2015 Watch and talk, Theater Spektakel, Zurich, CH
Collections
Collections Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, NL
Spier Collection, SA
Djurhuus Collection, Copenhagen, DK
GABELLO collection, Amsterdam, NL
MAZARS Collection, Amsterdam, NL
Iziko Museum, Cape Town, SA Tate Modern, London, GB Uthengisa Unokwrece elunxwemene Akzo Nobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam, NL Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, FR
Nominations
2025 Prix de Rome, NL
2021 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, SA
2021 Theodora Niemeijer Prize, NL
2019 Bamako Prize
2010 Martienssen Prize Award