ARTIST STATEMENT/BIOGRAPHY
Lona Ndzimande (b. 2000) lives and works in Cape Town. In 2023, she obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts from The
Ruth Prowse School of Art in Cape Town.
Lona Ndzimande’s practice explores Black womanhood through the lens of her Zulu upbringing. Using mixed
media—including acrylic, Zulu glass beads, fabric, pearls, papier mâché, and paper collage—she creates layered
portraits that celebrate Blackness, femininity, and self-expression while interrogating societal expectations and
purity culture.
Ndzimande’s work balances intimacy, defiance, and joy, incorporating textures, draped beads, and sculptural
elements to highlight resilience, sensuality, and the complexity of identity. Through her bold visual language, she
builds archives of Black femininity that honour tradition while engaging critically with contemporary life.
In her recent solo exhibition, What I Meant to Say, Ndzimande reflected on the silences imposed on Black
women by tradition, purity culture, and society at large. Through portraiture and collage, she explored themes
of vulnerability, resistance, autonomy, sensuality, and self-definition. The works reclaim agency within spaces that
have historically sought to define and contain Black women, transforming what was restrained, softened, or left
unspoken into bold declarations of identity and self-expression.
