Artist Database

Turiya Magadlela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and studied at the University of Johannesburg and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2018, Magadlela was featured in a list of the top 10 African Artists to Invest in Now by TimesLive, and shortlisted for the Jean-François Prat Prize. She works with art-making techniques that are traditionally used by women – sewing and embroidery on various conceptually loaded fabrics, from pantyhose to correctional service uniforms – and creates abstract compositions by cutting, stitching, folding, and stretching these materials across wooden frames. Her subject matter moves between articulations of personal experiences of women and motherhood and narratives from black South African history. Magadlela engages in a conversation on the colonization of black bodies and women; her art uses materials capitalist in nature at a time when commoditization is ever more prescient.