Kresiah Mukwazhi
Born 1992 in Harare, Zimbabwe
Kresiah Mukwazhi works with deconstructed bras — strap, cup, and closure stitched and stretched across canvas at scales that can reach thirteen meters wide. Each garment is sourced from charity donations and resold informally across the region, carrying the trace of a body it once held. Across painting, installation, performance, and video, Mukwazhi builds a visual activism that speaks back to gender-based violence in her native Zimbabwe and to the global economies of women‘s labor, sexuality, and survival. Her practice moves between testimony and ritual, refusing the line between the political and the sacred.
„A theatre of women who are more than physical barometers of the toxicity of a system… These are women who stand for and take care of each other.“
– Fadzai Muchemwa
Her work has been exhibited at Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Nottingham Contemporary; the Secession, Vienna; the Philara Foundation, Düsseldorf; the Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia; Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Norval Foundation, Cape Town; the South African National Gallery, Cape Town; Iziko Museums, Cape Town; Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town; the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision; SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin; Njelele Art Station, Harare; and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo.
Mukwazhi‘s monumental bra-strap work Shanduko nhema, commissioned for Schultze Projects #4 at Museum Ludwig, Cologne, curated by Yilmaz Dziewior, remains on view through June 2026. She is currently included in Bunker Berlin #5, the new collection presentation at the Boros Collection, Berlin. In December 2026, the NGV Triennial at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, curated by Amita Kirpalani, will include Nyenyedzi nomwe (the Seven Sisters Pleiades), the large-scale bra-strap work she premiered at Art Basel Unlimited in 2024.
Gallery exhibitions
Institutional exhibitions
Press
Vita
Born 1992 in Harare, Zimbabwe
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025 ndakangavara, kaufmann repetto, Milan Nyika irikure nezuva, kaufmann repetto, New York
2024 Gupuro, Jan Kaps, Cologne Schultze Projects #4, Museum Ludwig, Cologne Body Count, blank projects, Cape Town Art Basel Unlimited
2023 Kirawa, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham Kirawa, Secession, Vienna
2022 Ndakamira pamukaha (Standing my ground till it cracks), Jan Kaps, Cologne
2021 Zviratidzo, blank projects, Cape Town
2020 Mukando, Jan Kaps, Cologne
2018 Bedroom Interview, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 SEX NOW, Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf (In)visibility of violence, Kunsthalle Giessen, Giessen
2023 Kunst-Stoff. Textile as Artistic Material, Kunsthalle Emden, Emden I’ve only got eyes for you, Philara Foundation, Dusseldorf Strike Fast, Dance Lightly: Artists on Boxing, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York
2022 Zimbabwean Pavilion, 59th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia Empowerment, Planetarische Feminismen, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg
2021 OFF ROAD II, Zeno X Gallery, Antwerp Mixed Company, Norval Foundation, Cape Town
2020 Love your symptoms but not too much, blank projects, Cape Town Materiality, Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town
2019 African Textures. Jeanne Gaigher, Kresiah Mukwazhi, Marlene Steyn, Osart Gallery, Milan, Italy The Female Line, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa Conversations in Texture, Berman Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa Legitimate Expectations, Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg, South Africa Not the Usual Suspects, Iziko Museums, Cape Town, South Africa Five Bhobh – Painting at the End of an Era, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa Prism of Freedom, Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision
2018 Legitimate Expectations, The Market Photo Workshop, Johannesburg PARA_OTHER, with Performance, Take me back to Osibisa (with blood on my hands), Chale Wote Street Art Festival, Accra
2017 That, Around Which the Universe Revolves, Kapitel 3 - Harare, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin at Njelele Art Station, Harare, Zimbabwe
2016 My Private Moments, The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2020 Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) fellowship with Performance, Zvisarira, Cape Town
2018 Research Residency ANT Mobility Grant, Pro Helvetia
RESIDENCIES AND PERFORMANCES
2023 Hera Hera (hail hail), Nottingham Contemporary, UK
2019 Arts of Africa and Global Souths, Rhodes University with Performance, Summoned from Luzari, Makhanda Nafasi Art Space with Performance, Pamuchakata, Dar es Salaam
2018 Katutura Art Centre, Windhoek, Namibia supported by ANT Mobility Grant, Pro Helvetia
SYMPOSIUMS
2019 Live Art Workshop, The Institute of Creative Arts at the University of Cape Town
2018 Radical Histories II, Katutura Art Centre in Windhoek, Namibia Activists Jam Session, supported by ActionAid International, Dar es Salaam