Umkhangu/Birthmark, the first institutional solo exhibition by South African artist Sthenjwa Luthuli, opens on 11 September 2025 in Gallery 9 at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town.
Main image (above): Sthenjwa Luthuli, Amathonga. 2024. Hand-carved super wood block, mixed media, paint.138 x 275 cm. Courtesy of the Homestead Collection
“Norval Foundation is incredibly pleased to showcase Luthuli’s work at our institution, bringing a taste of Kwazulu-Natal to Cape Town. I have no doubt visitors will be enthralled by Luthuli’s masterful and intricate wood carvings as well as his expressive use of colour,” says Caroline Greyling, Norval Foundation Museum Director.
Born in KwaZulu-Natal in 1991, Luthuli is a self-taught printmaker whose practice has earned recognition for its meticulous craftsmanship and spiritual depth. Through intricately carved wood reliefs and richly textured prints, Luthuli explores themes of memory, cultural identity, and African spiritualism – bridging the personal and ancestral in ways that are both poetic and profoundly moving.
The title of the exhibition, Umkhangu – translated from isiZulu as “birthmark” – evokes both physical and metaphysical meanings. Within African cosmologies, a birthmark may signal ancestral presence, a spiritual guide, or a unique destiny. Luthuli reclaims this symbolism as a powerful metaphor for belonging, legacy, and inner transformation.
Featuring fourteen works created between 2010 and 2025, the exhibition brings together key pieces alongside a new body of work. Through rhythmic pattern, symbolism, and intimate mark-making, Luthuli renders the body as a vessel of inherited knowledge; resisting erasure and reconnecting with suppressed histories and sacred traditions.
“Luthuli’s work stands as an astonishing testament to individual resilience and the emancipatory power of art. His personal journey, rising to become an artist of this calibre despite systemic obstacles, is profoundly inspirational. Blending exceptional technical skill with deep philosophical reflection, Luthuli creates compositions that pulse with vitality. His work offers a framework through which to engage with the rich traditions and intricate pattern languages of Zulu culture, historically expressed in beadwork, weaving, ceramics, and woodcarving.
“He draws from a deep well of indigenous artistic and ancestral influences. As a contemporary artist Luthuli weaves these traditions into an expansive cosmology that invites viewers to reflect on spirituality and inner worlds,” explains Ashleigh McLean, WHATIFTHEWORLD Gallery Director.
This exhibition is curated by Tayla Hollamby, with heartfelt thanks to Sthenjwa Luthuli and his studio, as well as WHATIFTHEWORLD and Ashleigh McLean for their support.
About the artist
Sthenjwa Luthuli (b. 1991, Botha’s Hill, KwaZulu-Natal) is renowned for his meticulously hand-carved and painted wood reliefs – each taking months to complete. His artworks depict “unknown spaces” – dreamlike thresholds where ancestors and descendants commune. Inspired by the visual traditions of the Rorke’s Drift school and contemporaries such as Wangechi Mutu and Yinka Shonibare, Luthuli’s work feels both timeless and strikingly contemporary.
He has exhibited across South Africa and internationally, with works held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Norval Foundation, and the Dean Collection of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, among others.
Dates
Exclusive exhibition opening: 11 September 2025 (tickets available via Webtickets)
Public walkabout with Sthenjwa Luthuli: 13 September 2025 at 11am
Exhibition closing: 10 January 2026
