Aperture Presents the Highly Anticipated Second Volume to Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness

New York, April 23, 2024—Aperture announces the second volume to the critically acclaimed self-portrait series Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness. In Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II, artist Zanele Muholi (born in Umlazi, Durban, South Africa) explores and expands upon notions of Blackness, and the myriad possibilities of self.

Since the publication of the first volume, in 2018, Muholi has continued to create self-portraiture in various places around the world. Drawing on different materials or found objects referencing each environment, a specific event or lived experience, Muholi offers a multiplicity of bold interpretations of their own image. These imaginative self-portraits propose and probe a range of possible identities in today’s global society and respond emphatically to contemporary and historical racisms. Alongside nearly one hundred new photographs, curator and art historian Renée Mussai brings together a diverse set of written contributions from a dozen curators, poets, artists, and authors, building a poetic and experimental framework attuned to speculative futures and the ambiguity and complexity of representational politics. Powerfully arresting, this collection further amplifies Muholi’s expressive and radical manifesto. As they state in the first volume, “My practice as a visual activist looks at Black resistance—existence as well as insistence.”

Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II includes an extended interview with the artist, and essays by Sophia Al-Maria, Natasha Becker, Phoebe Boswell, Tina M. Campt, Natasha Ginwala, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Aluta Humbane, Ntsiki Jacobs, Khanyisile Mbongwa, Renée Mussai, Porsha Olayiwola, Lola Olufemi, and Legacy Russell. It is available at aperture.org/books.

Public Programs
Events planned on the occasion of Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II include a panel discussion and artist book signing on Tuesday, May 21, at 11 am at Southern Guild, 747 N. Western Ave., Melrose Hill, Los Angeles. Details will be available at aperture.org/events.

Zanele Muholi is a visual artist and activist, cofounder of the Forum for the Empowerment of Women, and founder of Inkanyiso, a forum for queer and visual media. Muholi has received numerous awards and honors, including a Doctor Honoris Causa from Universite de Liege, Belgium (2023); ICP Spotlights Honoree Award (2022); France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2017); ICP Infinity Award for Documentary and Photojournalism (2016); Fine Prize for an emerging artist at 2013 Carnegie International; and Prince Claus Award (2013). Muholi’s work has been exhibited at Documenta 13; in May You Live in Interesting Times at 58th Venice Biennale; 2020 Sydney Biennale; and 29th São Paulo Biennale. Solo exhibitions have taken place at institutions, including Tate Modern, London; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Brooklyn Museum; Seattle Art Museum; Kulturhistorek Museum, Oslo; and Maison Europeénne de la Photographie, Paris. Muholi’s work is included in the collections of over thirty major museums, including Boston Museum of Fine Arts; Brooklyn Museum; Carnegie Museum of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Art; Tate Modern, London; and Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The first volume of Somnyama Ngonyama (Aperture, 2018) was awarded the Kraszna-Krausz Photography Book Award in 2019. Muholi is an honorary professor at the University of the Arts Bremen, Germany. They are represented by Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York.

Renée Mussai (editor) is an independent curator, scholar, and writer, and formerly the senior curator and head of curatorial and collections at Autograph, London.

Sophia Al-Maria is a Qatari American artist, writer, and filmmaker living and working in London.

Natasha Becker is the inaugural curator of African art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Phoebe Boswell is a multidisciplinary artist based in London.

Tina M. Campt holds a joint appointment at Princeton University in the department of art and archaeology and as the Lewis Center for the Arts Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the humanities.

Natasha Ginwala is associate curator at large at Gropius Bau, Berlin, and artistic director of Colomboscope in Sri Lanka.

Alexis Pauline Gumbs is an activist, educator, and author of several books, including Undrowned: Black Feminist
Lessons from Marine Mammals (2022).

Aluta Humbane is a composer and musician from Durban, South Africa, where she is the director of Injongo Performing Arts.

Ntsiki Jacobs is a researcher, international MBA graduate, former radio presenter and actress, manager in the public sector, editor freelance writer, volunteer, and editor at the Muholi Art Institute.

Khanyisile Mbongwa is an independent curator, artist, and sociologist, as well as a PhD candidate at the Institute of Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town.

Porsha Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator, curator, and the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. Lola Olufemi is a Black feminist writer and Stuart Hall Foundation researcher based in the Centre for Research and Education in Art and Media at the University of Westminster, London.

Legacy Russell is a curator, writer, and executive director and chief curator of the Kitchen in New York.

Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness, Volume II was made possible, in part, with generous support from Melissa and James O’Shaughnessy, and Celso M. Gonzalez-Falla. Additional thanks to Michael Hoeh for his support.

About Aperture
Aperture is a nonprofit publisher that leads conversations around photography worldwide. From its base in New York, Aperture connects global audiences and supports artists through its acclaimed quarterly magazine, books, exhibitions, digital platforms, public programs, limited-edition prints, and awards. Established in 1952 to advance “creative thinking, significantly expressed in words and photographs,” Aperture champions photography’s vital role in nurturing curiosity and encouraging a more just, tolerant society.

—

Press Contact
Lauren Van Natten, +1 212.946.7151, publicity@aperture.org