Zanele Muholi: Hlanganani – Unite Opens in Amsterdam

FROM CAPE TOWN TO THE WORLD: ZANELE MUHOLI CLOSES ‘KANYE NAWE – ALONGSIDE YOU’ AND OPENS ‘HLANGANANI – UNITE’ IN AMSTERDAM

New solo exhibition at Galerie Ron Mandos, Amsterdam, marks 20 years of Faces and Phases while Cape Town’s Kanye Nawe continues through a series of online talks with Zanele Muholi.

As the exhibition Kanye Nawe – Alongside You closes in Cape Town on 10 September 2026, visual activist and photographer Zanele Muholi opens a powerful new chapter on the global stage. On Saturday, 12 September 2026, Hlanganani – Unite opens at Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam, presented alongside the Muholi Art Institute (MAI). At the same time, Kanye Nawe continues beyond the gallery walls through a series of online talks with Zanele Muholi, keeping the conversation alive with audiences in South Africa and around the world. Zanele Muholi Hlanganani Unite brings this ongoing visual conversation to an international audience.

The Amsterdam exhibition brings together new self-portraits from the ongoing series Somnyama Ngonyama (“Hail the Dark Lioness”), new paintings, and a major presentation of Faces and Phases, marking twenty years of one of the most significant living archives of Black LGBTQIA+ life in the world. New portraits made with Amsterdam’s Black queer community expand the archive back into the city where Muholi first worked with local participants in 2009.

“Hlanganani means Unite. It is a call to stand together, across race, gender, borders and histories. From Cape Town’s Kanye Nawe – Alongside You, we move into a wider circle. We are saying that our communities, wherever we are, belong to each other. No one should stand alone.”
— Zanele Muholi

Twenty years ago, in 2006, the same year South Africa became the first country in Africa to legalise same-sex marriage, Zanele Muholi began Faces and Phases. What started as a necessary act of documentation has grown into hundreds of portraits made across five continents. The project remains a living record of resilience, dignity and presence.

Muholi’s relationship with Amsterdam runs deep

In 2009, Muholi undertook a three-month residency at the Thami Mnyele Foundation, work that shaped early self-portrait series including Being (T)here. In 2017, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam presented their first solo museum exhibition in the Netherlands. For Hlanganani, members of Amsterdam’s Black queer community have once again been invited before the camera, continuing a conversation that began seventeen years earlier.

“Faces and Phases was never only about the photograph. It was about making sure our people are seen, remembered and respected. Twenty years later the work continues because the need continues. Art is how we insist on our existence. It is how we protect each other.”
— Zanele Muholi

Through Hlanganani – Unite and the ongoing online talks that extend Kanye Nawe, Muholi continues a practice of visual activism that refuses silence. The work moves from local communities to a global conversation, insisting that Black LGBTQIA+ lives remain visible, valued and connected across the world. Zanele Muholi Hlanganani Unite continues this important dialogue through art, photography and visual activism.

EXHIBITION DETAILS

Title: Hlanganani – Unite
Artist: Zanele Muholi
Venue: Galerie Ron Mandos, Prinsengracht 282, Amsterdam
Dates: 12 September – 1 November 2026
Opening: Saturday, 12 September 2026
Presented alongside: Muholi Art Institute (MAI)

ABOUT ZANELE MUHOLI

Zanele Muholi is a visual activist and photographer whose work has redefined the representation of Black LGBTQIA+ communities. Through long-term projects such as Faces and Phases and Somnyama Ngonyama, Muholi has built one of the most important visual archives of queer Black life, while consistently using art as a tool for dignity, resistance and collective care.