Helena Uambembe
born 1994, in Pomfret, South Africa lives and works in Berlin Helena Uambembe’s multidisciplinary practice explores the intersections of personal and political histories, tracing the legacies of colonialism, conflict, and migration across Angola, South Africa, and beyond. Drawing on her family’s experience as part of the 32 Battalion of the South African Apartheid Army, Uambembe maps how intimate lives are shaped by broader historical forces. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt, Kunsthalle Bremen, and Haus der Kunst in Munich, as well as at major biennials such as the 36th São Paulo Bienal, the 13th Berlin Biennale, the 13th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Biennale für Freiburg 3, Rencontres de Bamako, the Lagos Biennial, La Biennale de Lubumbashi, and the British Pavilion public program at the 60th Venice Biennale. Helena Uambembe is a recipient of several awards, including the ars viva prize (2024), the Baloise Art Prize (2022), and the David Koloane Award (2019). She was a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program in 2023.
Gallery exhibitions
Institutional exhibitions
Press
Vita
Lives and works in Berlin
Born 1994 in Pomfret, South Africa
UPCOMING
2026 Sound Shapes, Galleria Borghese, Rome (Group) Sustaining the Otherwise, Amsterdam (Group) Internationales Frauen Filmfest Dortmund + Köln, Cologne (Group)
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
2025 Com lábios de dizer nova poesia, Jan Kaps, Cologne Cuida bem da pouca sorte, Goodman Gallery, London
2024 On the Site of the Okavango, Anton Janizewski, Berlin
2023 Blooming in Stasis: 25.8230° S, 23.5312° E, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt In Memory We Love, Jahmek Contemporary Art, Luanda
2021 How to Make Mud Cake, The Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts (with Everard Read), Cape Town
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS 2026 Ce qui traverse, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
2025 Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice, 36th Bienal de São Paulo, Sao Paulo a hand that is all our hands combined, Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Gothenburg Das flüchtige weitergeben / passing the fugitive on, The 13th Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Berlin Ars viva. Where will we land?, Haus der Kunst, Munich Planetary Peasants, Moritzburg Museum, Halle (Saale) Biennale for Freiburg, Freiburg Foundations, Haus Kunst Mitte, Berlin
2024 Ars Viva 2024, Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen Vulnerable, KOW, Berlin Des Seins À Dessein, Edition 5, Lausanne Look!, Anton Janizewski, Berlin Notes On The Wake. Rhapsody and Lamentations in Three Acts, Villa Romana, Florence Inner Mining - Outer Mining: A global constellation, Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Dortmund
2023 Soil Conversations, Galerie im Körnerpark, Berlin Deep Blue, Bienal Fotografia do Porto Port Museum - Palace Of the Visconde of Balsemão, Porto What We Know, INCCA, Johannesburg
2022 Toxicity, La Biennale de Lubumbashi VII, Democratic Republic of the Congo Feminism ya Mang, Feminism Yethu, Feminism Yani, Goethe-Institut South Africa, Johannesburg Maa ka Maaya ka ca a yere kono, 13th Rencontres de Bamako – African Biennale of Photography, Bamako
2021 The Unfinished Camp: What is the future of art in a decentralized world?, The Shed, New York; HEK (House of Electronic Arts), Basel; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town Territories Between Us, Iziko Museums of South Africa, Cape Town Home for the Holidays, Danger Gevaar Ingozi Studio, Johannesburg Shape of Blackness. Oakstop Project Space, California
2020 PINK, Everard Read, Johannesburg The Politics of the Now, Aspire Art, Johannesburg The Borders of Memory, Guns & Rain, Johannesburg Convert Bioscope (virtual art exhibition), Bag Factory, Johannesburg
2019 Taxidermia do Futuro, Museu Nacional de História Natural de Angola, Luanda Resistance Is Us, Absa Gallery, Johannesburg I do not Know what you are Talking about but I know what you mean, PASTO Art Gallery, Buenos Aires
2018 TUT Studio exhibition 2018, TUT Arts Campus, Pretoria Till Art Do Us Apart, TUT Art Festival, Pretoria Print Art – Now and Then, Trent Gallery, Pretoria
2017 The silences between, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town South South. Let me begin again, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town
AWARDS/ GRANTS
2024 Guest Artist, Villa Romana, Florence Ars viva prize for Visual Artist, Munich
2023 DAAD Visual Arts Fellowship, Berlin
2022 Baloise Art Prize, Basel
2021 F*cken Globo, Hotel Globo, Luanda
2019 David Koloane Award, Johannesburg
PUBLICATIONS
Helena Uambembe: What Blooms, Still, Waits by Mistura Allison, 2024