Lebohang Kganye

Lebohang Kganye (born 1990) is a South African visual artist living and working in Johannesburg. Kganye is part of a new generation of contemporary South African artists and photographers born shortly before or after Apartheid ended.

Biography

Lebohang Kganye was born in Johannesburg and grew up in Katlehong, a township in South Africa. She started her photography training at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 2009, completing its Advanced Photography Programme in 2011. Kganye received her diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Johannesburg in 2016. She is currently working on a Masters in Fine Arts at the Witwatersrand University.

Career and work

Lebohang Kganye lost her mother when she was twenty years old. Her mother was her main connection to her extended family. A few years later, after she had completed her studies at the Market Photo Workshop, Kganye started to explore her family stories by looking into old photo albums and recording oral stories narrated by her family members. Through cross-dressing and performance, Kganye attempts to recreate moments in her family history she had not herself experienced. Her work aims to juxtapose different temporalities and transform photography as a meeting place between generations. Roland Barthes' eulogy to his late mother and reading of photography as overlapping past and present in Camera Lucida inspired Kganye's practice.

The spelling of Kganye's surname is another component of the artist's work. The apartheid regime forced black South African families to move to designated areas away from city centres. Black South African surnames were often recorded incorrectly or misspelt by law officials. The spelling of Kganye's surname changed from Khanye to Khanyi, and eventually, Kganye.

In B(l)ack to Fairy Tales (2011), created during her studies at the Market Photo Workshop, Kganye stages scenes drawn from The German Grimm Brothers fairy tales and Disney. As the artist writes: "As a girl, I identified with fairy tale characters such as Snow White. Our annual primary school plays were about fairy tales, and I'd say, I'm Snow White and want to be her. My black skin and location became an increasing disjuncture with the fantasies I believed in."

Kganye was the recipient of The Tierney Fellowship in 2012 and exhibited Her-Story and Heir-Story, two photographic series combined under the overall title "Ke Lefa Laka" ("It's my inheritance," in Sesotho) at the Market Photo Workshop. There remains in this commonality so much difference, and so much distance in space and time. Photographs present us not just with the "thereness" of the object but the "having been there," thus having the ability to present past, present, and future in a single image." Ke Lefa Laka (2013) was awarded the Jury Prize at the Bamako Encounters Biennale of African Photography in 2015 and the Contemporary African Photography (CAP) Prize in 2016.

Cuttings Source:

In Heir-Story (2013), Kganye unpacks her family's journey of migration during apartheid. Kganye never met her grandfather who died before she was born.

Kganye experiments with installation and sculpture. Her grandfather, the central patriarchal figure in her family, is a recurrent character in her creative practice. In Reconstruction of a Family (2016), she borrows archival elements from her photo albums to construct enlarged cardboard cut-outs. As Kganye explains: "A big difference compared to my previous series on this same process is that the characters here are reversed—the background is white, the silhouettes are black. The characters no longer have faces. They become anonymous." Using the family album as a primary material, Kganye selects family figures and transforms their photographic representations into anonymous and enigmatic silhouettes. Dirithi, as Kganye explains, evokes the passing of family figures and stresses the capacity of photography to act as a bridge between the dead and the living. According to the artist: "photography is a ghost, an existence in transition, hovering in a duality of time. Silhouettes resonate with me because of this play". Placing silhouette cut-outs of characters in miniature theatre sets, Kganye figures her own interpretation of the tales. In 2017, she animates her series Reconstruction of a Family (2016) in the film Ke Sale Teng. The medium of film is a way for the artist further to explore the fluctuating character of memory and history. The installation Mohlokomedi wa Tora ("lighthouse keeper") in 2018 presents the story of her grandfather in life-size sceneries made of cardboards and cut-outs standing up in the exhibition space. Organising archival elements around a light positioned in the centre of the room, the artist creates a shadow play theatre and invites visitors to walk in and interact with each scene. Focus: African Perspectives, Armory Show, Afronova Gallery, New York, 2016 Festival Africolor, Université Paris 13, Paris, 2016 Tell Tale, The Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg, 2018 Mohlokomedi wa Tora, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa, 2018 a ppr oc he: Lebohang Kganye, Le Molière, Paris, 2019 Camera Austria Award for Contemporary Photography, Lebohang Kganye, Award Ceremony, Graz, 2019. The Stories We Tell, George Bizos Gallery at Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg, 2020 What Are You Leaving Behind?, ROSEGALLERY, Santa Monica, USA, 2022 Leave the light when you leave for good, Georgian House Museum, Bristol, UK, 2022 Staging Memories, Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland, 2022 Haufi Nyana? I’ve Come to Take you Home, FOAM, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023 Ternary Memories of Yesterday, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark, 2023 Mmoloki wa mehopolo: Breaking Bread with a Wanderer, Brundyn Arts and Culture, Cape Town, South Africa, 2023 Shall you Return Everything, but the Burden, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany, 2023 Mmoloki wa mehopolo: Breaking Bread with a Wanderer, Boschendal x Brundyn Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 2024 The Sea is History, outdoor sculptures, Boschendal x Brundyn Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 2024–2025 Le Sale ka Kgotso, Fotografiska Berlin, Berlin, Germany, 2025–2026

Group exhibitions Rememory, William Goodenough House, London, 2012 Short Change, My Joburg, La Maison Rouge Gallery, Paris, 2013 Photoville, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York, 2013 Apartheid and After, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, 2013 OFF THE WALL, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, 2014 The View From Here, Tiwani Contemporary, London, 2015 Telling Time, Bamako Encounters Biennale of African Photography, Bamako, 2015 Cities and Memory, Photo Biennale, Brandts Museum, Odense, 2016 L'Autre Continent, Artistes, Femmes, Africaines, Le Havre, 2016 Recent Histories, New Photography from Africa, Walther Collection Project Space, New York, 2016 In Plain Sight: Social Life in South Africa and Romania before and after 1989, Aparte Gallery of George Enescu University of Arts, Iasi & Borderline Art Space, Lasi, Romania, 2016 Give me Yesterday, Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan, 2016 Le jour qui vient, AFRICA NOW, Galerie des Galeries, Galeries Lafayette, Paris, 2017 Les Territoires du Corps, Video Programme, Art Paris Art Fair, Grand Palais, Paris, 2017 Recent Histories, New Photography from Africa, Walther Collection, Ulm, 2017 Digital Africa (Tokyo), YaPhoto@Arakawa Africa, OGU MAG gallery, Tokyo, 2017 RESIST(E) – Printemps photographique Afrique de Sud, NegPos, France, 2017–2018 Sans tambour ni trompette – Cent ans de guerres, Le Parvis centre d'art, Parvis, France, 2017–2018 Tell freedom, by all means necessary, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands, 2018 Africa is No Island, MACAAL, Marrakech, 2018 Wayback Machine 17th DongGang International Photo Festival 2018, Gangwon-do, Yeongwol-gun, Korea, 2018 ReCreation, Non-Work: Occupied by Leisure Time, Fotograf Festival #8, Fotograf Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic, 2018 Not the Usual Suspects, IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 2018–2019 Un Air de famille – parce que les fantômes disparaissent au lever du jour, H2M, Bourg-en-Bresse, France, 2018–2019 L'Afrique n'est pas une île, Fondation Zinsou, Cotonou, Benin, 2018–2019 Recent Histories, Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from The Walther Collection, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam, NL, 2018–2019 Gifts, 25 years of Open Society Foundation, Open Society Foundation, Cape Town, 2018–2020 The Bricks that Build a Home, The Migratie Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands, 2018 Africa State of Mind, Impressions Gallery, Bradford UK, 2018 Remembrance, Rose Gallery, Santa Monica, 2018 Sans Tambour, Ni Trompette, Cent ans de Guerres, Faux Mouvement, Metz, France, 2018–2019 Who's Looking at the Family, Now?, Photo50 at London Art Fair, London, UK, 2019 Beyond Boundaries: LensCulture Discoveries in Contemporary Photography, Aperture Gallery, New York, 2019 LensCulture Exhibition at Aperture Gallery Coda Paper Art 2019, Coda Paper Museum, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, 2019 Africa State of Mind, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, 2019 The Way She Looks: A History of Female Gazes in African Portraiture, Ryerson Image Centre, Toronto, 2019 Africa State of Mind, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol UK, 2019–2020 Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context, MOCAD, Detroit USA, 2019–2020 Alpha Crucis – Contemporary African Art, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway, 2020 Afterglow, Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan, 2020 Artist BLANKSPACE: Home as a Parish, Hangar Online (digital), 2020 Unexpected, Festival Images Vevey, Vevey, Switzerland, 2020 APhF – Athens Photo Festival 2020, Athens, 2020 Home, Paper Biennale, Museum Rijswijk, Rijswijk, Netherlands, 2020 Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize Exhibition, Porto, Portugal, 2020 Imagens Resolutivas, FIF_BH – International Festival of Photography of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2020 The Power of My Hands, Traveling Exhibition, Africa 2020 season, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris, 2020–2021 Pass It On. Private Stories, Public Stories, FOTODOK, Utrecht, Netherlands, 2020–2021 Beyond the Sky, Film exhibition, Toni Rembe Freedom Theater, MoAD, San Francisco, 2021–2022 Nouvelles icônes, effigies de sel et d’or, FRAC Réunion, Sudel Fuma in Saint-Paul, Reunion Island, 2021–2022 On the Moon and on the Earth / make way for the dreamers!, Photographia Europea, 16th edition, Reggio Emilia, Italy, 2021 Family Affairs. Family in Current Photography, Traveling Exhibition, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany, 2021 Portraits in Dialogue: South African Contemporary Photography, OCT Boxes Art Museum, Foshan City, China, 2021 Sites of Memory, UTA Artist Space, Los Angeles, USA, 2021 Into the Light, South African Pavilion, 59th Venice Biennale, 2022 As We Rise: Photography from The Black Atlantic, Traveling Exhibition, The Art Museum at the University of Toronto, 2022 The Power of My Hands – Afrique(s) artises femmes, Travelling exhibition, SOMETHING Art Space, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, 2022 The Breath of Ancestors, Congo Biennale, Kinshasa, Congo 2022 Currency: Photography Beyond Capture, Triennial of Photography Hamburg, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany, 2022 Botho Art Collective LA – SA, Los Angeles CA, 2022 Shifting Dialogues, K21 Kunstsammlung, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2022 OZANGÉ, Bienal de Fotografía Africana, Malaga, Spain, 2022–2023 Words Create Images, 5th International Biennale of Casablanca, Morocco, 2022–2023 Family Affairs. Family in Current Photography, Traveling Exhibition, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany, 2022–2023 Motherhood, Syker Vorwerk Contemporary Art Center, Bremen, Germany, 2022–2023 Foggy Island, Modern Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2023 Memory is the Seamstress, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE, 2023 Rooms with a View. Aby Warburg, Florence and the Laboratory of Images, Uffizi Galleries, Florence, 2023 Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, USA, 2023 Trace — Formations of Likeness, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, 2023 The Struggle of Memory – Deutsche Bank Collection, Palais Populaire, Berlin, 2023 Wayback Machine Book_Spaces, Museum für Photographie Braunschweig, Germany, 2023 Tell Me What You Remember: Sue Williamson and Lebohang Kganye, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA, 2023 As We Rise: Photography from The Black Atlantic, Traveling Exhibition, The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, 2023 / Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, USA, 2023 As We Rise: Photography From The Black Atlantic The Power of My Hands, Traveling Exhibition, Museu Nacional de História Natural, Luanda, Angola, 2023 MAST Photography Grant 2023, Fondazione MAST, Bologna, Italy, 2023 I Miss Myself The Most, Stevenson Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2023–2024 New acquisitions by the Photography Committee, MAM Paris, France, 2023–2024 David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, Traveling Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, USA, 2023–2024 À partir d’elle, des artistes en leur mère, Le BAL, Paris, 2023–2024 I Am Not What You See Of Me, La Fondation Francès, Clichy, France, 2023–2024 Mickalene Thomas / Portrait of an Unlikely Space, Yale University Art Gallery, USA, 2023–2024 Dancing in the Light, The Wedge Collection, MOCA Toronto, 2023–2024 A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Traveling Exhibition, Tate Modern, London, 2023–2024 David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, Traveling Exhibition, Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, Spain, 2024 As We Rise: Photography from The Black Atlantic, Traveling Exhibition, Dalhousie Gallerie, Halifax, Canada, 2024 A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Traveling Exhibition, Wereld Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 2024 20 Years of the Verbund Collection, Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria, 2024 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Traveling Exhibition, The Cube, Frankfurt, Germany, 2024 / Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK, 2024 EXPOSED, Torino Foto Festival, Torino, Italy, 2024 ECHOES: Emotions, Identity, Memory, Ray Triennial of Photography, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany, 2024 Burning Down the House: Rethinking Family, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland, 2024 Photography Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, 2024–2025 Grow It, Show It: Hair from Diane Arbus to TikTok, Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany, 2024–2025 Look at US: 25 Years of Art Collection Deutsche Börse, The Cube, Deutsche Börse AG, Eschborn, Germany, 2024–2025 As We Rise: Photography from The Black Atlantic, Traveling Exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2024–2025 À partir d’elle, des artistes el leur mère, Traveling Exhibition, Foundation A, Brussels, Belgium, 2025 She who starts the song…, Gjon Mili International Exhibition, National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo, 2025 A World in Common: Contemporary African Photography, Traveling Exhibition, C/O Berlin, Germany, 2025 BA’ZINZILE: A Rehearsal for Breathing, Stellenbosch Triennale, Cape Town, South Africa, 2025 David Goldblatt: No Ulterior Motive, Traveling Exhibition, Yale University Art Gallery, New Heaven, USA, 2025 MAMA: From Mary to Merkel, Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2025 Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, Iziko South African National Gallery, 2025–2026 O Poder de Minhas Mãos, Traveling Exhibition, São Paulo, Brazil, 2025–2026 Ecology of Sensitivity: Guangzhou Image Triennial 2025, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China, 2025 New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging, MoMA, New York, USA, 2025–2026

Awards SA Taxi Foundation Art Award, Top 5, Multiples, Lizamore and Gallery, 2017 Contemporary African Photography (CAP) Prize Recipient, Image Afrique Festival, 2017 Art Photography Awards 2018, LensCulture, Juror's Pick, 2018 WINNERS—Art Photography Awards 2018 Tokyo International Photography Competition 6th edition, Winner, 2019 Camera Austria Award, Winner, 2019 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, Visual Arts Finalist, 2020 Shpilman International Prize for Excellence in Photography, Finalist, Honorable Mention, 2020 Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize, Recipient, 2019/2020 Grand Prix Images Vevey, Winner, 2021/2022 Foam Paul Huf Award, Winner, 2022 MAST Photography Grant, Finalist, Special Mention, 2023 MAST Photography Grant on Industry and Work / 2023 – Lebohang Kganye Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Winner, from the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation and the Photographers' Gallery, 2024

Collections

Kganye's work is held in the following permanent collections: Art Collection Deutsche Börse, Eschborn, Germany Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA Chazen Museum of Art, Wisconsin: 2 prints (as of 23 May 2023) Carnegie Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Collection du Centre National des Artes Plastiques, Paris, France Fondation Francès, Senlis, France Frac Réunion, Reúnion, France Harry David Art Collection, Athens, Greece Jean Pigozzi Collection of African Art, Geneva, Switzerland JP Getty Museum Collection, Los Angeles, USA JP Morgan, Chase Art Collection, New York, USA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany Saastamoinen Foundation Collection, Espoo, Finland Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, USA Verbund Collection, Vienna, Austria Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK Walther Collection, New York: 24 prints (as of 23 May 2023) Wedge Collection, Toronto, Canada