Lhola Amira was born in 1984 in Gugulethu, South Africa, and currently lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa. Amira’s practice includes ‘Appearance’, photography, video and sculpture presented as what THEY term ‘Constellations’. Amira has been awarded a number of residencies, namely the AiRS (Artist in Residence Skövde Art Museum) residency in Skövde, Sweden in 2017; the Jiwar Creation and Society residency in Barcelona, Spain in 2015; and at Vasl Artists’ Collective in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2010.
Solo Constellations and Appearances include: DITAOLA: DIVINING BONES, curated by Mariella Franzoni as part of the Barcelona LOOP Festival City Screen Program at L&B Gallery in Barcelona, Spain, Abalozi Bayeza / Os Deuses Estão Chegando, at SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa followed by BAYEZA naMAYEZA / De Kommer Med Medicin at the Skövde Konsthall & Konstmeséum in Skövde, Sweden, both in 2019; SINKING: Xa Sinqamla Unxubo at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town in 2018; LAGOM: Breaking Bread with The Self-Righteous at SMAC Gallery in Cape Town and Looking for Ghana & The Red Suitcase at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, both in 2017.Group exhibitions include: NIRIN, the 22nd Sydney Biennale curated by Brook Andrews in Sydney, Australia, in 2020; KUBATANA, at Vestfossen Kunstlaboratorium in Vestfossen, Norway, Present Passing at OSAGE Gallery in Hong Kong, China and Ngoma, at the Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) in 2019; The Powers of Emotions Symposium at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; the 33rd São Paulo Biennial, Affective Affinities, curated by Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro, both in 2018; African Voices: Confronting Frontiers of Reality at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare, Zimbabwe and 29º06’S 26º13’E, [Appearance] as part of Museum Night, curated by Jay Pather, at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAA) in Cape Town, South Africa, both in 2017.
Selected collections include The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, South Africa; Skövde Konstshall, Skövde Sweden; the Tiroche DeLeon Collection, Gibraltar; and the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.