SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- In 2021, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco (MoAD) presented the first solo museum exhibition of the work of Malawi-born, Johannesburg-based textile artist, Billie Zangewa (b. 1973). Now, the Museum has released the first major career survey of the artist’s work in a beautiful 112-page, full-color publication entitled Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun. Edited by the exhibition’s guest curator, Dexter Wimberly, the hardcover volume, packaged in a beautiful slipcase, showcases the past 15 years of Zangewa’s work as well as new pieces made for the 2021 exhibition.

Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun explores Zangewa’s creation of literal and figurative tapestries of the everyday lives and contemporary intersectional identities of Black women. Through her hand-sewn silk collages, which primarily depict Black women in the domestic sphere, Zangewa reclaims a medium that was once relegated as “women’s work” and delves into the familiarity, beauty, and sociopolitical drivers of the seemingly mundane. Beginning her career in the fashion and advertising industries, Zangewa employs her understanding of textiles to portray personal and universal experiences through domestic interiors, urban landscapes, and portraiture. Through the method of their making and their narrative content, Zangewa’s silk paintings illustrate gendered labor in a sociopolitical context, where the domestic sphere becomes a pretext for a deeper understanding of the construction of identity, questions around gender stereotypes, and racial prejudice.

Although many of these decontextualized pieces are autobiographical, all of them portray a sense of intimacy and exploration of identity—connecting the pieces to each other through a larger narrative about Black femininity and tugging on the thread of the viewer’s own lived experience.

“Zangewa’s is a perspective that MoAD remains committed to elevating,” says Monetta White, Executive Director of MoAD. “She is a woman, artist, and mother exploring her own experience while leaving space for our collective examination of womanhood, motherhood, ‘daily feminism,’ and ‘women’s work.’ Quite simply, I find the art and the artist beautiful—the body of work is universally accessible while coming from a distinct individual life.”

Billie Zangewa received her BFA from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa in 1995. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized by Galerie Templon, Paris, France (2020); Afronova Gallery, Grand Palais, Paris, France (2017); Johann Levy Gallery, Paris, France (2008); and Gerard Sekoto Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa (2005). Zangewa’s work is in several public and private collections including the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.; Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom. In 2018, Zangewa was selected as the Featured Artist for the FNB Art Joburg Fair. She is represented by Lehmann Maupin, New York.

Dexter Wimberly has exhibited the work of hundreds of artists internationally and founded the Hayama Artist Residency in Japan. During his decade-long career, he has organized exhibitions and programs at dozens of museums and galleries, including the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Contemporary Art Museum (CAM) Raleigh, the California African American Museum, the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), 101/EXHIBIT gallery, Edward Tyler Nahem Fine Art, bitforms gallery, Koki Arts gallery (Tokyo), and the Third Line Gallery (Dubai).

The Museum of the African Diaspora is a contemporary art museum whose mission is to celebrate Black cultures, ignite challenging conversations, and inspire learning through the global lens of the African Diaspora. MoAD is one of only a few museums in the United States dedicated to the celebration and interpretation of art, artists, and cultures from the African Diaspora. The Museum presents exhibitions highlighting contemporary art and artists of African descent and engages its audience through education and public programs that interpret and enhance the understanding of Black art. Founded in 2005, the Museum continues to be a unique, cultural arts staple in the San Francisco Bay Area community.

Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun is available for purchase now online and in person through MoAD’s bookstore.