Mary Sibande

In a practice that spans sculpture, textile, photography, and more, Mary Sibande reclaims power for the Black female body in post-apartheid South Africa and rewrites her family’s legacy of domestic work. Her counter-histories often involve the artist’s sculptural alter ego, Sophie, whom Sibande dresses in vibrant outfits that resemble domestic worker uniforms. Yet she adorns them with elements of Victorian garments, transforming the humble into the spiritual, the overlooked into the spectacular. Sibande has exhibited at institutions including the Met Breuer, the British Museum, Zeitz MOCAA, and the Somerset House. Her work belongs in the collections of the National Museum of African Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Norton Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Musée d’Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne.