Lindokuhle Sobekwa | Umkhondo: Going Deeper | Johannesburg Art Gallery
The Johannesburg Art Gallery, in collaboration with Goodman Gallery, is proud to present ‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’, Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s first solo exhibition at the museum, following his 2023 FNB Art Prize Award.
‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’ unites two significant and interconnected bodies of work — ‘I carry Her photo with Me’ and ‘Ezilalini (The Country)’ — seen together for the first time. The exhibition showcases Sobekwa’s journey of introspection and discovery as he wrestles with absence, loss and belonging.
It reflects his deep interest in (re)enactments of memory, personal histories and lived realities while also drawing attention to broader societal issues through a lens-based practice that spans over a decade. In ‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’ Sobekwa critically examines the enduring legacies of historical injustices and their effects on personal and collective identities, work he describes as “confronting the deep scars left by apartheid and colonialism…exploring the fragmentation and poverty that continue to reverberate through South African society."
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About
Lindokuhle Sobekwa
Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995, Katlehong, South Africa) is from a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Through his participation in the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme in Thokoza in 2012, he realised that the medium of photography would be an essential tool to tell stories that concern and interest him.
Sobekwa exhibited for the first time in 2013 as part of a group show in Thokoza organised by the Rubis Mécénat Foundation. His photo essay ‘Nyaope’ (2014) was published in the Mail & Guardian (South Africa), in Vice magazine’s annual Photo Issue and in the daily De Standaard (Belgium).
In 2015, Sobekwa was awarded a scholarship to study at the Market Photo Workshop. That same year his series ‘Nyaope’ was exhibited in another group show, ‘Free From My Happiness’, organised by Rubis Mécénat for the International Photo Festival of Ghent in Belgium. The exhibition toured additional sites in Belgium and South Africa. A publication edited by Tjorven Bruyneel included a selection of works. Sobekwa was selected by the Magnum Foundation For Photography and Social Justice (NYC) to develop the project ‘I carry Her photo with Me’. In 2018 he received the Magnum Foundation Fund to continue his long-term project ‘Nyaope’. In 2021 Sobekwa completed a residency at A4 Foundation in Cape Town, culminating in a two-person exhibition with Mikhael Subotzky titled ‘Tell It to the Mountains’.
Sobekwa opened his first museum show in 2022 at Huis Marseille in The Netherlands, featuring the body of work ‘Umkhondo: Tracing Memory’ as part of the summer programme titled ‘The beauty of the world so heavy’. His hand-made photobook, ‘I carry Her photo with Me’, was included in African Cosmologies at the FotoFest Biennial Houston in 2020, curated by Mark Sealy.
Sobekwa’s work was shown at Goodman Gallery in March 2023 as part of the photography show ‘Against the Grain’, alongside Ernest Cole, David Goldblatt, Ruth Motau and Ming Smith. He was named an official member of Magnum Photos in 2022 and gave a lecture about his practice at TATE Modern in 2023 as part of his John Kobal Foundation Fellowship. He was also awarded the 2023 FNB Art Prize which includes a solo show at the Johannesburg Art Gallery in August 2024. His series ‘I carry Her photo with Me’ was published by Mack Books in 2024. Sobekwa was announced the 2025 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize winner, the most prestigious award for a living artist whose work has influenced international contemporary photography within the past year.
Collections include Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography; A4 Arts Foundation; University of South Africa; Sainsbury Centre; Hessel Foundation; Rubis Mercanet; and Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
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