Mbali Dhlamini is a South African multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the nuanced rhythms of decolonisation and cultural reclamation. As a visual researcher, her artistic practice combines tactile, visual, and discursive methods to create a transformative lens through which contemporary African identity-making is reimagined. Her work weaves together past and present, creating an ongoing dialogue between her lived experiences and the rich visual landscapes of her heritage.
Dhlamini’s artistic philosophy centers on the twin processes of unlearning and relearning. She approaches each project with deep respect for indigenous knowledge systems, viewing language as both a medium of understanding and a vital repository of wisdom. Her work invites viewers to examine historical narratives and engage with cultural continuity in our modern world.
The Resonance of Indigo
A defining moment in Dhlamini’s journey came during her residency at Kehinde Wiley’s Black Rock Senegal in Dakar. There, she deepened her engagement with traditional indigo dyeing, a practice steeped in West African cultural and spiritual significance. Her Look Into series emerged from this investigation, reimagining colonial portraits of West Africans in traditional attire. Through digital manipulation and layering, she questions colonial histories while celebrating indigenous aesthetic resilience.
Her exploration of indigo transcends visual beauty, examining its symbolic role in identity, heritage, and resistance. These works, created during her fellowship at RAW Material Company in Dakar, spark essential conversations about preserving indigenous philosophies and their contemporary relevance.
A Journey into Maternal Wisdom: Go Bipa Mpa Ka Mabele
Dhlamini’s Go Bipa Mpa Ka Mabele exemplifies her multidisciplinary approach, seamlessly weaving elements of Sesotho heritage into contemporary discourse. The exhibition is both a celebration of and a dialogue with indigenous African practices, using art as a tool to reconnect with forgotten or marginalized ways of knowing. By foregrounding themes of maternity, fertility, and land stewardship, Dhlamini creates a meditative space for audiences to engage with questions of identity, belonging, and the sustainability of cultural knowledge in a rapidly changing world.
Incorporating her signature techniques—visual research, language as a medium of understanding, and tactile exploration—Dhlamini transforms the gallery into a sacred space. Her work reinforces the inseparability of body, spirit, and land in African cosmology, making the personal universal and the ancestral contemporary.
This exhibition complements her broader body of work, emphasizing her relentless dedication to the preservation and evolution of indigenous knowledge systems. It not only situates her within the lineage of African contemporary artists but also positions her as a pivotal figure in global conversations about decolonisation, art, and identity.
A Journey Through Layers of Learning
Dhlamini’s academic and artistic path reflects her dedication to interdisciplinary exploration. Beginning as a printmaker at Johannesburg’s Artist Proof Studio, she earned a National Diploma and Bachelor of Technology in Visual Arts from the University of Johannesburg. Her Master of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand marked a creative evolution. Her graduate solo exhibition, Non-Promised Land: Bana Ba Thari Entsho (2015), explored faith and spirituality in Apostolic and Zionist movements, using color to illuminate cultural identities.
A Global Voice with Local Roots
Dhlamini’s work has earned international recognition, showing at venues from the Washington Printmakers Gallery to the Beijing Biennale and the European Cultural Center during the Venice Biennale. Her inclusion in the Mercedes Benz Art Collection’s 2021 exhibition, Friendship. Nature. Culture., further established her as a vital voice in global art discourse.
Though her influence reaches globally, Dhlamini remains anchored in Johannesburg, engaging with its layered histories and vibrant textures. Her work stands not just as an exploration of identity but as a testament to indigenous knowledge’s enduring power and its role in shaping our collective future.
Unfolding the Layers of Identity
Mbali Dhlamini’s art challenges viewers to reconsider inherited narratives and embrace decolonial thinking. Through her lens, African identity emerges as neither static nor singular—but as a vibrant, evolving dialogue between personal and collective, historical and contemporary.
As she continues to uncover and celebrate African culture’s intricacies, Dhlamini’s practice demonstrates art’s power to reclaim identity and reimagine the future.
