Senzeni Marasela’s narratives, told across various media such as embroidery, painting, print, video and performance, are a process of personal catharsis and reconciliation due to a physically and emotionally estranged relationship with her mother. In negotiating this tension, Marasela reclaims her, as well as her mother’s, subjective experience as part of South Africa’s untold histories.

Marasela’s work has been widely exhibited in South Africa, Europe and the US. Her work features in prominent local and international collections, including MoMA, New York; The Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington D.C.; Sindika Dokolo Fondation, Luanda; and IZIKO South African National Gallery, Cape Town, to name a few. Marasela’s work was prominently featured as part of the Johannesburg Pavilion at The 2015 Venice Biennale, I am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa, at the Smithsonian National African Museum, Washington D.C. and will be featured in a group show at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, Norway; a solo show at the Zeitz Mocaa, Cape Town, South Africa; and a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France.

Marasela studied at the University of the Witswaterstrand in Johannesburg, where she obtained a BA Fine Arts degree in 1998.