The Johannesburg Art Gallery, in collaboration with Goodman Gallery, is proud to present ‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’, Lindokuhle Sobekwa’s first solo exhibition at the museum, following his 2023 FNB Art Prize Award.
‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’ unites two significant and interconnected bodies of work — ‘I carry Her photo with Me’ and ‘Ezilalini (The Country)’ — seen together for the first time. The exhibition showcases Sobekwa’s journey of introspection and discovery as he wrestles with absence, loss and belonging.
It reflects his deep interest in (re)enactments of memory, personal histories and lived realities while also drawing attention to broader societal issues through a lens-based practice that spans over a decade. In ‘Umkhondo: Going Deeper’ Sobekwa critically examines the enduring legacies of historical injustices and their effects on personal and collective identities, work he describes as “confronting the deep scars left by apartheid and colonialism…exploring the fragmentation and poverty that continue to reverberate through South African society."
Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995 in Katlehong, Johannesburg) is a South African photographer. He was introduced to photography in 2012, through the Of Soul and Joy Project in Buhlebuzile High School in Thokoza township, where his photography mentors included Bieke Depoorter, Cyprien Clément-Delmas, Thabiso Sekgala, Tjorven Bruyneel and Kutlwano Moagi.
In 2024, Sobekwa presented solo show at the Johannesburg Art Gallery titled Umkhondo: Going Deeper, following his 2023 FNB Art Prize Award.
In 2023, Sobekwa was awarded the inaugural John Kobal Foundation Fellowship. Maintaining the scrapbook aesthetic of the handmade edition for his first photobook, I carry Her photo with Me, a photographic search for answers about the disappearance of his sister Ziyanda, was published in 2024.
In 2022, he opened his first museum show at Huis Marseille (Amsterdam), featuring the body of work Umkhondo. Tracing Memory, as part of the summer program The Beauty of the World So Heavy. His handmade photobook, I carry Her photo with Me, was included in African Cosmologies at the FotoFest Biennial Houston (2020), curated by Mark Sealy.
In 2021, he completed a residency at A4 Foundation in Cape Town, which culminated in a two-person exhibition with Mikhael Subotzky titled Tell It to the Mountains. He is also currently working on a collaborative project with French Photographer Cyprien Clément-Delmas about the community of Daleside in South Africa. This series was published by Gost in 2021 and has been supported by the Rubis Mécénat Foundation.
Sobekwa’s work has been exhibited in South Africa, Iran, Norway, the US and the Netherlands. His breakout photo series Nyaope: ‘Everything you do my Boss, will do’ was published in the Mail & Guardian (South Africa) in 2014 and his work was featured in Vice magazine and the Standaard in the same year. He completed the foundation course at Market Photo Workshop and in 2017, Sobekwa was selected by the Magnum Foundation as a fellow in the renowned Photography and Social Justice program.
Sobekwa lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Download full CV