Lusanda Ndita has Turned the Separation of the Black Family Into a Solo Art Exhibition

What does it take to turn a family photo album into a solo exhibition at one of Johannesburg’s most respected contemporary art galleries? For Lusanda Ndita, it took years of quiet reflection, a rigorous printmaking practice, and one of Africa’s most transformative arts programmes. Lusanda Ndita exhibition titled Indlela Ibomvu, which opened at Gallery Momo on 13 June 2026, is as much a story about the Absa L’Atelier programme as it is about the artist himself.

The Absa L’Atelier has been running for 40 years, making it one of the longest-standing corporate arts initiatives on the African continent. In partnership with SANAVA (the South African National Association for the Visual Arts), IFAS (the French Institute of South Africa) and the French Embassy, the programme identifies and elevates emerging African artists through a combination of competitions, mentorship, masterclasses, and international residencies.

At its apex sits the Gerard Sekoto Award. Named after the legendary South African painter who spent much of his life in Paris, it’s given annually to South African artists aged 25 to 35 who demonstrate exceptional integrity and growth in their practice. The 2024 recipient was Ndita. The prize included a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, professional exposure, and most importantly, a debut solo exhibition – the Indlela Ibomvu.

A Photographer Who Refuses the Label

Lusanda is a Johannesburg-based visual artist and member of the artist collective Occupying The Gallery. Trained at the Market Photo Workshop’s Advanced Programme in Photography, his practice is rooted in his family history, which is documented through family photo albums, apartheid-era dompas identity documents, oral histories, and work permits passed down by his mother.

His work explores the absence of male figures in his life and his entire paternal side. Shaped by migrant labour and the structural ruptures of apartheid, he takes a deeper look at how this transformed his life as he continues to grapple with his own identity within the scheme of things.

By layering these archival materials through printmaking, photography, and collage, he builds what curator Kamo Mahan described at the opening as a “counter archive”, a space where a bureaucratic state control collides with intimate familial memory.

Lusanda expressed at the opening night: “I’m a trained photographer, and my friends say I’m not a photographer.” This line drew laughter from the audience, but it signals that he is beyond category. His Paris residency has also cemented this evolution.

Indlela Ibomvu: What the Exhibition Is About

The title of his exhibition means a path or road that is ready to be travelled. It signals movement, transition, and becoming, which is precisely what the work enacts. He traces the journeys of absent paternal figures who disappeared into the horizon to find work in South African cities, and how their absence is shaping the home.

Central to the exhibition is the scroll format, a deliberate resistance to the fixed frame. The scroll unfolds beyond what can be fully seen at once. History is not only in the past, but is persistently present and has shaped our present. Colour operates conceptually here too. Red signals liminality, the state between boyhood and manhood in Xhosa cultural practice. Blue and orange invoke the 1910 Union of South Africa, a reminder that the personal archive is always entangled with our political history.

An emotional path for Lusanda Ndita, he worked through his emotions of coming from a broken family due to apartheid legislation. Centring his exhibition around his grandfather’s dompas, he recreated his family’s photo album as a contrast between having male figures from his maternal side while have peternal absent. “There’s a presence and absence, and its very emotional,” Lusanda expressed on his works at the exhibition.

The Absa L’Atelier Effect: From Award to Exhibition

This is Lusanda’s first commercial solo exhibition, but not his first encounter with the title Indlela Ibomvu. He presented earlier work under the same name at the Market Photo Workshop in 2022 as part of his Tierney Fellowship. The Gallery Momo version represents a more mature, post-Paris iteration. It’s deeper, more materially complex, and conceptually resolved.

Indlela Ibomvu is the first exhibition in Absa’s 2026 Pan-African exhibition programme. It’s a series that will showcase exceptional African artists across the continent throughout the year. The fact that a 40-year programme is still producing first-time international travel experiences and debut solo exhibitions for South African artists speaks to both its reach and impact.

Dr Paul Bayliss, Senior Specialist Art and Museum Curator at Absa, noted at the opening that over the two years since Nditawon the award, “we’ve seen him grow and mature into the artist he is.” That kind of institutional accompaniment – not just prize-giving, but sustained mentorship – is what distinguishes L’Atelier from a one-time grant. Previous Gerard Sekoto Award winners include artists such as Nandipha Mntambo and Lawrence Lemaoana, who have gone on to international careers. Safe to say that Lusanda is also on a similar path. Indlela Ibomvu, one could say

What Lusanda’s work also does is make space for conversations about black masculinity, inherited trauma, and the archive as a living thing. In a context where these conversations are often flattened into representation politics, Indlela Ibomvu insists on complexity.

Exhibition Details

Exhibition	Indlela ibomvu
Artist	Lusanda Ndita
Gallery	Gallery MOMO
Public Opening	Saturday, 13 June 2026
Exhibition Dates	13 June – 11 July 2026
Entry Fee	Free Entry

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the Lusanda Ndita exhibition called and where can I see it?

The exhibition is titled Indlela Ibomvu and opened at Gallery Momo, Johannesburg on 13 June 2026. It is Lusanda Ndita’s debut solo exhibition and the first instalment in Absa’s 2026 Pan African exhibition programme. Check gallerymomo.com for current viewing hours.

Q: What is the Absa L’Atelier Gerard Sekoto Award?

An annual prize given to a South African artist aged 25–35 demonstrating exceptional integrity in their practice. It includes a three-month Paris residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, mentorship, and a debut solo exhibition — funded through a partnership between Absa, SANAVA, IFAS, and the French Embassy.

Q: Who is Lusanda Ndita?

A Johannesburg-based visual artist and member of Occupying The Gallery, trained at the Market Photo Workshop. He works across photography, printmaking, and collage, using domestic archives to explore themes of absence, memory, and black masculinity.

Q: What does Indlela Ibomvu mean?

A Nguni idiom meaning a path or road ready to be travelled — referring to journeys of absent male figures, and more broadly to the artist’s own journey of identity and artistic becoming.

Q: How does the Absa L’Atelier programme support artists after they win?

Beyond the prize ceremony, L’Atelier provides a Paris residency, masterclasses, sustained mentorship, and a solo exhibition roughly two years after the award — plus connection to a continent-wide network of galleries and institutions.