On the Path

Amant New York Fall 2025 resident Sabelo Mlangeni invites you to participate in a walkthrough of his studio practice, followed by a conversation with Dr. Oluremi C. Onabanjo, Peter Schub Curator in the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art.

Throughout his residency, Sabelo has been revisiting his long-term photographic projects, deepening his exploration of the intersection between spirituality and culture. His research encompasses reflections on the Zion Christian Church movement in South Africa alongside a new body of work that explores the historical and spiritual connections of Western church communities, such as those in San Francisco’s Fillmore District.

In addition to these themes, Sabelo’s work has long focused on the LGBTIQ+ community, including his research on the first Pride parades in Johannesburg and New York. Over the years, he has created intimate portraits of queer communities, both in South Africa and beyond. Notably, his Black Men In Dress (2008-2011) series presents a provocative photo essay of the Johannesburg and Soweto Pride parades.

This program is part of the For Your Reference series, where our artists in residence share and discuss key references informing their ongoing research at Amant. Amant programs are always free. RSVPs are strongly encouraged. Doors for On The Path: Tension, Disconnect and Connect will open at 6:45pm on Wednesday, October 22 in Géza, located at 306 Maujer.

More About Sabelo Mlangeni

Working largely in black and white format, Sabelo Mlangeni has built his practice around intimate photographs that draw out the inherent beauty in the ordinary. Mlangeni is driven by his interest in the notions of community and communing where a central part of his process requires him to spend significant time—weeks, months, sometimes years—with those he chooses to photograph; sharing intimately in their thoughts, feelings, stories and everyday lives. His practice is a continuous survey of the most challenging, beautiful and confounding aspects of the human experience.

He states: “I have been moving around Johannesburg and its closest suburbs as someone interested in story-telling about everyday life. In my early walks, I found myself in many spaces where the situation and the living conditions were impossible to look at and to photograph. Then I started wondering, what to frame? Soon another side of the hardships emerged, and I attempted to capture that hidden beauty, that ordinary peace.”

Mlangeni has had numerous solo exhibitions to date, including most recently Imvuselelo: The revival at Cantor Arts Center in Stanford (2023) and Ngiyabona Phambli at the Institute of Ideas & Imagination in Paris (2023). His work has been widely exhibited both locally and internationally, including at The 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2024), A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town (2023), Haus der Kunst / The Walther Collection in Munich (2023), Para Site in Hong Kong (2022), Huis Marseille in Amsterdam (2022), K21 in Düsseldorf (2022), Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2021), Frestas Triennial of São Paulo (2021), Lagos Biennale (2019), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2019), Huis Marseille Museum of Photography (2019), Wits Art Museum (2018), Savvy Contemporary (2018), Kunsthal KAde (2018), Museum Africa (2015), Liverpool Biennale (2013), Lubumbashi Biennale (2012), Lagos Photo Festival (2011), V&A Museum (2011), Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum (2010), and Johannesburg Art Gallery (2010).

Mlangeni has been awarded several prizes including the Columbia University II&I fellowship and artist residency (Paris, 2022), Africa MediaWorks Photography Prize (London, 2018), POPCAP’16 Prize for Contemporary African Photography (2016), and the Tollman Award for Visual Arts (2009). He has also had residencies at A4 Arts Foundation (Cape Town, 2018), Centre de Art Waza (Lubumbashi, 2017), Walther Collection (Neu-Ulm, 2017), Akademie der Künste (Vienna, 2014), Akademie der Künste (Berlin, 2013) and Centre for Contemporary Art (Lagos, 2010). His work is represented in several institutional collections, including the Tate Modern, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Walther Collection, Art Institute of Chicago, KADIST, and CNAP—French national collections.

More ABout Dr Oluremi C. Onabanjo

Oluremi C. Onabanjo is The Peter Schub Curator of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, where she manages MoMA's holdings of over 35,000 photographs spanning the history of the medium. Her projects currently on view include New Photography 2025, Visual Vernaculars, and A Little Gallery of the Photo-Secession, and recent exhibitions and collaborations include Ernest Cole's House of Bondage, Projects: Ming Smith, and New Photography 2023. The inaugural recipient of the Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work, Onabanjo was a 2024 Center for Curatorial Leadership Fellow, and the 2023 recipient of the Cisneros Institute Research Grant. She is a core member of the C-MAP Africa Research Group and sits on the Photography Advisory Board for the Istanbul Modern. Previously, Onabanjo worked as Director of Exhibitions and Collections of The Walther Collection and served on the curatorial team of the 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg (2022). Onabanjo is the editor of Marilyn Nance: Last Day in Lagos (2022) and the author of Ming Smith: Invisible Man, Somewhere, Everywhere (2023). She holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University.