Musa N. Nxumalo was born in 1986 in Soweto, South Africa, where he currently lives and works. Nxumalo received his introduction to photography at the Market Photo Workshop, where he completed the Foundation and Intermediate Courses between 2006 and 2008. In 2015, he was nominated for the prestigious First Book Award, as well as the 1st prize in Visual Art for the Impact Awards in 2010.

In 2020, Nxumalo presented his solo exhibition, We Are Running Out Of Hashtags!, at SMAC Gallery, in Cape Town, South Africa. Earlier solo exhibitions include: 16 Shots, at SMAC Gallery, in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2017; The Anthology of Youth at SMAC Gallery’s presentation at FNB Joburg Art Fair at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa; and In Search Of…, shown at SMAC Gallery in Stellenbosch, South Africa, and Goethe Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Earlier in 2020, Nxumalo was selected to participate in NIRIN, the 22nd Sydney Biennale curated by Brook Andrews, in Sydney, Australia. In 2019, Nxumalo’s work was also included in the group exhibition Crossing Night: Regional Identities x Global Context at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, USA.

Further notable group exhibitions include: Africa State of Mind at the Impressions Gallery in the Bradford, UK before traveling to the Museum of African Diaspora in San Francisco, USA, and the Royal West England Academy in Bristol, UK; Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960 – Today at Adam – the Brussels Design Museum in Brussels, Belgium, all in 2019. In 2018, Nxumalo was selected to take part in the 11th edition of Rencontres de Bamako, entitled Afrotopia, curated by Marie-Ann Yemsi, in Bamako, Mali; Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, France, in 2017; Peregrinate, shown in Lagos, Abidjan, Bamako and Nairobi, between 2015 and 2016; and Next Generation at the Godwin-Ternbach Museum, Queens College in New York, in 2015.