ZANELE MUHOLI: Faces and Phases 19 | Southern Guild Los Angeles
Julian M. Brown, Los Angeles, 2024,
Courtesy Zanele Muholi; Southern Guild, Cape Town/Los Angeles;
and Yancey Richardson, New York.
© Zanele Muholi.
ZANELE MUHOLI: Faces and Phases 19
Southern Guild Los Angeles
May 16 - September 6, 2025
Southern Guild Los Angeles presents Faces and Phases 19 by acclaimed South African visual activist Zanele Muholi, on view from May 16 to September 6, 2025. This powerful solo exhibition marks 19 years of Muholi’s ongoing photographic project documenting the lives of Black lesbian, bisexual, Queer women, Trans, and gender non-conforming individuals. What began in South Africa has expanded globally to include participants from the US, UK, Brazil, and Portugal, forming a living Queer archive of nearly 1,000 black-and-white portraits. Rooted in love, activism, and resistance, the project counters erasure and violence by offering deeply personal, minimally staged images that challenge the viewer with the direct, dignified gaze of each subject. The work resists static archival norms and instead celebrates the evolving, fluid nature of identity, underscoring the significance of return, rephotographing, and ongoing self-discovery. Running alongside the group exhibition In Us is Heaven during LA Pride Month, Faces and Phases 19 affirms Black Queer existence and solidarity across borders, embodying Muholi’s unwavering commitment to care, community, and radical representation.
