Lebohang Kganye

Born in 1990, Lebohang Kganye lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Kganye completed the Advanced Photography Programme at the Market Photo Workshop in 2011. She also completed her Fine Arts studies at the University of Johannesburg in 2016. She is a leading figure of the new generation of contemporary South African photographers.

Although primarily a photographer, Kganye often incorporates her interest in sculpture, performance, installation and film. She confronts her collected and altered photographs; the artist’s and her family’s, as material for both memory and fantasy. She explores fictional history by using archives to merge illusive characters with “real” characters in a new universe. Kganye was then selected as the Featured Artist for the 17th Business and Arts South Africa Awards in 2014. She was also awarded the Jury Prize at the Bamako Encounters Biennale of African Photography in 2015 and tthe CAP Prize 2016 in Basel and more recently the Rise Art Global Artist of the Year. Kganye recently received the coveted award for the Sasol New Signatures Competition 2017, leading to a solo show at the Pretoria Museum in August 2018.

She has participated in major exhibitions locally and internationally, including The Prada Foundation in Milan, MACAAL in Marrakesh, Digital Africa in Tokyo or Iziko National Gallery in Cape Town. Kganye’s work forms part of prestigious collections, such as the Walther Collection New York or The Pigozzi Collection Geneva.

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www.lebohangkganye.co.za

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2025

The Work of Shadows, Galerie La Patinoire Royale Bach, Brussels, Belgium, 2025

2024

The Sea is History, Boschendal x Brundyn Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 2024–2025

Mmoloki wa mehopolo: Breaking Bread with a Wanderer, Boschendal x Brundyn Art, Cape Town, South Africa, 2024

2023

Shall you Return Everything, but the Burden, Rautenstrauch Joest Museum, Cologne, Germany, 2023

Mmoloki wa mehopolo: Breaking Bread with a Wanderer, Brundyn Arts and Culture, Cape Town, South Africa, 2023

Ternary Memories of Yesterday, Galleri Image, Aarhus, Denmark, 2023

Haufi Nyana? I’ve Come to Take you Home, FOAM, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2023

 

2022

Staging Memories, Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland, 2022

Leave the light when you leave for good, Georgian House Museum, Bristol, UK, 2022

What Are You Leaving Behind?, ROSEGALLERY, Santa Monica, USA, 2022

 

2021

A solo exhibition of Kganye’s newly commissioned works will be presented by the Georgian House Museum in Bristol, UK

2020

The Stories We Tell, George Bizos Gallery at Apartheid Museum, Johannesburg

2019

a ppr oc he: Lebohang Kganye, Le Molière, Paris

2018

Mohlokomedi wa Tora, Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

Tell Tale, The Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg

Festival Africolor, Université Paris 13, Paris

2016

: Focus: African Perspectives, Armory Show, Afronova Gallery, New York

2013

: Ke Lefa Laka, Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg,

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

 

2025-2026

New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging, MoMA, New York, USA, 2025–2026

2024-2025

As We Rise: Photography from The Black Atlantic, Traveling Exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, UK, 2024–2025

Look at US: 25 Years of Art Collection Deutsche Börse, The Cube, Deutsche Börse AG, Eschborn, Germany, 2024–2025

Grow It, Show It: Hair from Diane Arbus to TikTok, Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany, 2024–2025

Photography Now, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK, 2024–2025

From here and from adventures, Henry de Monfreid / Lebohang Kganye, Archives départementales de l'Aude Marcel Rainaud, Carcassonne, France, 2024–2025

2024

Liberated Bodies, Voices sector, Paris Photo, Paris, France, 2024

Soil, Hazendal Festival, Hazendal Wine Estate, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, South Africa

Marvellous Realism, KT Wong Foundation & Fotografiska, Shanghai, People Republic of China

2021

Family Affairs. Family in Current Photography at the House of Photography in Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Germany

The Power of My Hands, at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, France

2020

Afterglow, Yokohama Triennale, Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan

Alpha Crucis, Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo, Norway (01.22 to 09.30 2020)

Africa State of Mind, a travelling exhibition presented at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK, in 2019 – 2020, the Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA and the Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK, in 2018

The words create images, 5th International Biennale of Casablanca, Casablanca, Morocco

1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, La Mamounia, Marrakesh, Morroco

Paulo Cunha e Silva Art Prize Exhibition, Porto, Portugal

2016-2018

Recent Histories, a touring exhibition of Contemporary African Photography and Video Art from Arthur Walther Collection, presented at Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam, Africa is No Island, at MACAAL, Marrakesh in 2018; Give me Yesterday, Fondazione Prada, Milan, Italy, in 2016