Billie Zangewa (Malawi 1973-)
Infinite Possibilities

hand-stitched silk collage

Artwork date: 2005
Signature details: adhered with a SMAC Gallery label on the reverse
Exhibited: SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, 'Gather', 26 September to 24 October 2020.
Exchange Rates*: USD 34 378,04 - 45 837,39
GBP 26 248,90 - 34 998,53
EURO 29 859,36 - 39 812,48

(1)

73 x 50 cm; framed size: 83.5 x 61.5 x 4 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Cape Town.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

For the first time in two years, an artwork by Billie Zangewa appears on the South African secondary market, marking an exciting moment for collectors of this highly regarded contemporary artist. Known for her hand-stitched silk collages, Zangewa transforms a traditionally domestic and feminine medium into a compelling vehicle for storytelling. Her work navigates the intimate terrain of everyday life, literally stitching together reflections on identity, intimacy, and the complexities of modern womanhood, often drawing on her perspective as a Malawian-born, Johannesburg-based artist and mother.

Created in 2005 during her residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, Infinite Possibilities dates to a formative moment in Zangewa’s career. Pre-dating online dating, the work reflects her encounters with different men during this period of her life, and the range of emotional and social possibilities they represented. While deeply personal, Zangewa presents these experiences “as seen through the eyes of others,” [1] acknowledging the ways women’s identities are often mediated through external perception while revealing both the personal and performative aspects of intimacy.

In this early silk tapestry, the themes that have come to define Zangewa’s oeuvre are already evident: self-representation, the negotiation of desire and independence, and the quiet assertion of visibility. Through her precise stitching, deliberate and symbolic use of silk, and her compositional restraint, she transforms the traditionally domestic act of sewing into an act of agency and reflection.

[^{1] SMAC Gallery, Gather. [O]. Available: https://www.smacgallery.com/groupexhibitions/gather}

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Billie Zangewa: Feeding Ground, a major exhibition of the artist’s work, is currently on display, until 8 February 2026, at the Norval Foundation in Cape Town.

• Other notable solo exhibitions include: A Quite Fire at Brighton CCA in the United Kingdom (2023); Thread for a Web Begun at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco (2021); Flesh and Blood at Lehmann Maupin in Seoul (2021) and Soldier of Love at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris (2020).

• Major international institutional exhibitions include: Field of Dreams at SITE Santa Fe in Miami (2024); Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art at the Barbican Centre in London (2024); Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams at the Brooklyn Museum in New York (2021); I Am … Contemporary Women Artists of Africa at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C (2019); Second Life at MACAAL in Marrakech (2018); Stedelijk BASE at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2017) and Making Africa, at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

• Zangewa’s work features in multiple highly acclaimed publications, including: Wimberly, (D). (2023). Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun. San Francisco: Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD); Porter, (J), et al. (2019). Vitamin T: Threads and Textiles in Contemporary Art. London: Phaidon; Kouoh, (K), ed. (2015). Body Talk: Feminism, Sexuality and the Body in the Work of Six African Artists. Brussels: WIELS and Motto Books. Dakar: RAW Material Company.

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Harris Museum, Art Gallery & Library, Preston; Hood Museum of Art, Hanover; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Johannesburg Art Gallery; JP Morgan Chase Art Collection, New York; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington; Norval Foundation, Cape Town; RISD Museum, Providence; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate Modern, London; and Hirshhorn, Washington, DC.