Artist Database

Contemporary artist, writer, and curator Khanyisile Mawhayi was born in Krugersdorp and is currently based in Johannesburg. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand and graduated in 2020 with a degree in Fine Art. Her practice includes painting, photography, and printmaking, and she examines issues of identity and belonging. Mawhayi explores the absence and presence of family members who could explain her cultural heritage and the lack of a family archive that records her past and could better inform her identity as a Tsonga woman. She is inspired by her personal experience, art history, and popular culture and uses colour and the female body, absent or present, to reflect on how society perceives Black women.

Mawhayi participated in the 4th edition BLVCK BLOCK group exhibition in 2019 and co-curated their 2020 exhibition Sphere. Further group exhibitions include the Kampala Biennale in 2020 as an apprentice in Tracy Roses’s studio and an online exhibition, also also also and and and, curated by Luvuyo Nyawose for the Institute of Creative Arts, University of Cape Town, in 2020. She exhibited in a solo capacity in Stevenson Gallery’s STAGE project in 2021.