HONEYMOON EXHIBITION AT KZNSA

 

(Sabelo Mlangeni : Image courtesy of Ferrante Ferranti)

 

KZNSA Gallery has a new exhibition - Honeymoon. The happily ever after?, a solo exhibition by acclaimed South African photographer Sabelo Mlangeni, recently honoured with the James Barnor Prize (Arles, 2026), recognising his contribution to contemporary photographic practice.

Sabelo Mlangeni graduated from the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg in 2004, where he currently lives and works. Recent solo exhibitions include Imvuselelo: The Revival at Cantor Arts Center, Stanford (2023) and Ngiyabona Phambili at the Institute of Ideas & Imagination, Paris (2023). His work has been widely exhibited locally and internationally, including at the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024), A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town (2023), Haus der Kunst / The Walther Collection, Munich (2023), Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2021), Lagos Biennale (2019), Liverpool Biennale (2013) and the V&A Museum, London (2011).

Mlangeni has received several awards and fellowships, including the Columbia University II&I Fellowship (2022), Africa MediaWorks Photography Prize (2018) and Tollman Award for Visual Arts (2009). His work is held in major institutional collections including Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, KADIST and the Walther Collection.

Developed over the past five years, Honeymoon. The happily ever after? is the artist’s latest body of work, inspired by a honeymoon trip to eThekwini (Durban) following the release of his wedding documentary series, Isivumelwano.

The series interrogates the notion of ‘happily ever after’, and the problematics or shortcomings of such a concept within the context of the contemporary South African experience.

Divided into multiple chapters, the series serves as a portrait of the tropical seaside city of eThekwini, captured by Mlangeni in all its glamour and decay. Despite being the country’s third largest metropolis and its largest port of trade, eThekwini has been marred by years of political instability and neglect, environmental disaster and infrastructural collapse.

First presented at blank projects, Cape Town, in 2025, the exhibition now comes to eThekwini - the muse for this body of work.

Presented by KZNSA Gallery in partnership with blank projects, Cape Town, the exhibition runs until November 1, 2026

The KZNSA Gallery is located at 166 Bulwer Road, Glenwood, Durban