Billie Zangewa (1973-): Breeding Ground explores the transformative potential of nurturing as a fundamental force for growth, creation, and connection. Through her masterful use of silk collage, Zangewa examines the cycles of care that define human existence, offering a compelling meditation on themes of motherhood, community, identity, and resilience.
Central to the exhibition is the concept of nurturing as an essential process that transcends biological frameworks. She investigates care in its many forms-whether directed towards a child, a relationship, an idea, or the environment-and how it shapes transformation over time. Her choice of silk as a medium is deliberate, embodying both fragility and resilience, which mirrors the duality of the narratives she presents.
The works articulate a profound dialogue between the personal and the collective, rooted in Zangewa’s experiences as a Malawian-South African woman, mother, and artist. These intimate portrayals transcend the domestic sphere to interrogate broader socio-political constructs, including gender roles, cultural identity, and the complexities of women’s lives. Through intricate compositions and vibrant patterns, Zangewa employs African textiles and cultural symbols, blending heritage with contemporary perspectives, while challenging stereotypes and affirming African femininity.
Johannesburg serves as an influential backdrop in Zangewa’s artwork, reflecting her engagement with urban life. Inspired by the city’s dynamism and contrasts, her works evoke the textures, rhythms, and nuances of its landscapes, particularly through its public transport system and striking architectural forms.
Breeding Ground also highlights the critical role of collective care within communities. Drawing from oral histories and shared narratives, Zangewa foregrounds the contributions of women and caregivers, emphasizing their influence in shaping individual and communal identities. This focus on interconnectedness invites reflection on the profound ways in which care, both individual and collective, sustains and nurtures life.
This exhibition positions nurturing as a central catalyst for transformation and resilience, prompting audiences to reconsider the delicate balance of strength and vulnerability inherent in the act of care.
Breeding Ground is curated by Anelisa Mangcu. The exhibition runs from 18 February – 11 September 2025.
View Press Room and Installation Images, here.
ARTIST BIO
Billie Zangewa (born in 1973 in Blantyre, Malawi, lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa) 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 SITE Santa Fe (2024), the Barbican (2024), Brighton CCA, United Kingdom (2023), Hirshhorn (2022), Brooklyn Museum (2021), Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco (2021), Astrup Fearnley (2020) Smithsonian Museum of African Art (2019), Norval Foundation (2018), MACAAL (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 Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library (Preston, United Kingdom), Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH), Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston (Boston, MA), Johannesburg Art Gallery (Johannesburg, South Africa), JP Morgan Chase Art Collection (New York, NY), Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, MN), Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX), National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, (Washington, D.C), Norval Foundation (Cape Town, South Africa), RISD Museum, (Providence, RI), Spelman College Museum of Fine Art (Atlanta, GA), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Tate Modern (London, United Kingdom), LACMA (Los Angeles, California) and Hirshhorn (Washington, DC). In 2018, Zangewa was selected as the Featured Artist for the FNB Joburg Art Fair.
