Thandiwe Muriu: More Than Half

After its acclaimed presentation at KYOTOGRAPHIE 2025, 193 Gallery Venice is pleased to present More Than Half, Thandiwe Muriu's latest series.

In these works, Muriu shifts her focus from camouflage to coexistence, anchoring her subjects in the kimono while setting them against the wax textile, a widely accepted backdrop of 'Africanness.' In doing so, she recognises the experience of Afro-Asian (Blasian) women, whose identities naturally bridge two cultures. In Japan, where the term hāfu (half) reflects an assumption of incompleteness, Muriu's portraits assert that both origins form a singular, unified presence.

Created during the artist's residency in Kyoto, the series channeled the spirit of 一如 (Ichinyo) meaning "all things are fundamentally one" as she evokes a world where belonging is not granted by resemblance, but expanded by existence.