(b. 1978, South African)

Turiya Magadlela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and studied at the University of Johannesburg before completing a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. In 2018, she was named by TimesLive as one of the top ten African artists to invest in and was shortlisted for the Jean-François Prat Prize. Magadlela employs artistic techniques traditionally associated with women, such as sewing and embroidery, working with conceptually charged materials that range from pantyhose to correctional service uniforms. Through processes of cutting, stitching, folding, and stretching these fabrics over wooden frames, she produces abstract compositions. Her practice moves between intimate reflections on womanhood and motherhood and broader narratives drawn from Black South African history. Engaging critically with the colonization of Black bodies—particularly those of women—Magadlela’s work foregrounds materials embedded in capitalist systems at a moment when commodification is increasingly pervasive.