Zanele Muholi's Brave Beauties Exhibition Opens at Constitution Hill During Women's Month

Published 19 Aug 2026 at 2:50 PM

by Gloria Masia

3 min read

Prof. Zanele Muholi opened a landmark solo exhibition celebrating transgender women and gender-nonconforming individuals in South Africa
The show runs from 20 August to 24 September 2026 at the Women's Jail, Constitution Hill in Johannesburg
Transgender activist Yaya Mavundla, herself a Brave Beauties participant, curated the exhibition

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It is curated by Yaya Mavundla, who is also featured in the series — Zanele Muholi's Brave Beauties exhibition opens at Constitution Hill on 20 August. Image: Zanele Muholi, Yaya Mavhundla
Source: Instagram

World-renowned visual activist Prof. Zanele Muholi has launched what is being described as a historic moment in South African photography: the first-ever dedicated solo exhibition of the Brave Beauties series. Running from 20 August to 24 September 2026, the show takes up residence at the Women's Jail, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, a venue whose history of imprisonment and resistance lends profound weight to its subject matter.

Brave Beauties: Stories of Identity, Visibility & Courage is a photographic essay that Muholi has been developing since 2014, documenting the lives of transgender women and gender-nonconforming individuals across South Africa. Until now, the series had never been presented as a standalone exhibition, making this opening during Women's Month, which extends into Heritage Month, a milestone for both the project and for LGBTQIA+ visibility in the country.

Muholi and Mavundla on the exhibition's purpose

Muholi has been vocal about what drives the work. 'Brave Beauties challenges the erasure of trans women's stories and insists that their lives, resistance and contributions belong in the visual and historical archive,' the photographer said, adding that transgender women's existence must be documented and preserved as part of Africa's true and diverse history.

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Curating the exhibition is Yaya Mavundla, Africa's most decorated transgender voice, who is herself a participant in the Brave Beauties series. Her dual role as both subject and curator gives the project an intimacy that few exhibitions achieve. Mavundla said:

"Having been part of Brave Beauties since its inception, I have witnessed firsthand the power of seeing our lives, identities and stories documented. Brave Beauties is more than photography; it is an act of visibility, resistance and self-determination. It gives us the power to be seen, to be celebrated and, most importantly, to define how we are remembered."

Heritage, history and the women's jail setting

The choice of venue is deliberate. The Women's Jail at Constitution Hill carries the memory of those who were confined and oppressed, making it a fitting backdrop for portraits that speak to a different kind of liberation: the freedom to define one's own identity and to exist without apology.

With Heritage Month beginning in September, the exhibition poses questions that cut to the heart of how South Africa tells its own story. Rather than treating heritage as something locked in monuments or textbooks, Brave Beauties positions living people as its own archive, asserting that transgender women are an inseparable part of the country's social and cultural fabric.

The portraits do not simply record individuals; they collectively challenge who gets remembered and who is allowed to belong within South Africa's national memory.

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