SOLO SHOWS
2025
AFRONOVA GALLERY at Paris Photo, Grand palais, Paris, France
Umphako, La Junqueira, Lisbon, Portugal
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2025
What’s the Word? Johannesburg!, Fondation A, Brussels, Belgium
Afrotropiques, Institut Français du Congo, Brazzaville, Congo-Brazzaville
2024
UBusuku ne Mini, Photo Saint Germain Festival, Paris, France
AFRONOVA GALLERY at Latitudes Art Fair, Johannesburg, South Africa
2023
AFRONOVA GALLERY at AKAA, Paris, France
Looking for the Light, Photometria awards 2022, esp+ Gallery, Greece
2022
Uhambo, Umhlabathi Photo Collective, Johannesburg, South Africa
2021 – 2022
Inganekwane, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg , South Africa – Northwest University
Gallery, Potchestroom, South Africa
2021
Elective Affinities, Bristol Photo Festival, BPF Public Gallery, Bristol, UK
2020
Of Soul and Joy, Croisière, Arles, France
Rubis Mecenat at Investec Cape Town Art Fair, Cape Town, South Africa
2018
Place of Peace, organised by Rubis Mécénat, Stop Sign Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2017
AFROTOPIA, The 11th Edition of the Bamako Encounters,Bamako, Mali
Roadhouse, Casa Blanca Roadhouse, Brakpan, South Africa
2016
Free from my Happiness, organised by Rubis Mécénat, Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2015
Free from my Happiness, organised by Rubis Mécénat and curated by Tjorven Bruyneel and Bieke Depoorter, International Photo Festival, Ghent, Belgium
2014
Visions of Africa, Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
2013
In Thokoza, organised by Rubis Mécénat, Ithuba Art Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
RESIDENCIES
2025
La Junqueira, Lisbon, Portugal
2024
Cité internationale des arts x IF, Paris, France
2022
NOOR Photo Agency, Amsterdam, The Nederlands
Exploring the tension between hope and illusion of the so-called ‘Born Free’ generation, British Journal of Photography, November 2024
Photographer Sibusiso Bheka gives a fascinating and mysterious portrait of South Africa, Internazionale, Issue 1562 of 10 May 2024
South African photographer Sibusiso Bheka awarded a prestigious residency in France, City Life Arts, April 2024
South African photographer Sibusiso Bheka out to make a name for himself in Paris, The Citizen, April 2024
#BizTrends2024: Capturing change: 5 trends in South African photography, Bizcommunity, January 2024
Akaa expose l’art contemporain africain dans sa diversité, Le Point, October 2023
SA artist shines at Paris’s AKAA Art and Design Fair, African Insider, October 2023
Young Photographer brings Thokoza to the World, Wanted Online, October 2023
uHambo: 10 years of Soul and Joy, The Mail and Guardian, February 2023
Young South African snapper Sibusiso Bheka graces Amsterdam, The Mail and Guardian, October 2022
Rubis Mécénat’s Of Soul and Joy South African Photography Project in Arles, whitewall, August 2020
Of Soul and Joy, fisheye magazine, July 2020
Of Soul and Joy Photography Project South Africa, Contemporary &, July 2020
Of Soul and Joy : Rubis Mécénat expose à Arles, artsixMix, June 2020
Sawubona Sibusiso Bheka !, clicanoo, April 2020
South Africa’s longest running Independent Art Fair returns for its 12th edition, Art Africa, November 2019
Shortlist CAP Contemporary African Photography Price announced, Zam Magazine, May 2019
Look: SA Youth tell their stories through the lens, IOL, July 2018
Rencontres de Bamako: Afrotopia, nouveaux imaginaires de l’Afrique contemporaine, France Info, December 2017
Photographie – Ouverture des Rencontres de Bamako : « Réinvestir les imaginaires », Jeune Afrique, December 2017
Bamako : à la 11e Biennale, les photographes imaginent le futur de l’Afrique, France Info, November 2017
An Outdoor Photography Exhibition Celebrates the Night in Johannesburg, Widewalls, August 2017
Brakpan roadhouse turned art gallery puts the real East Rand on show, Sunday Times, March 2017
At night, they walk with me: Sibusiso Bheka captures the atmosphere of Thokoza after dark, Between 10 and 5, October 2015
OF SOUL AND JOY, 10 YEARS
English
Published by Rubis Mecenat
2022
CATALYST 2020/2021
English
Published by IC Visual Lab in collaboration with Bristol Photo Festival
2021
AFROTOPIA
French and English
Published by Dilecta Editions
2018
THE OF SOUL AND JOY PHOTO COLLECTIVE
English
Published by Rubis Mecenat
2017
FREE FROM MY HAPPINESS
English
Published by Rubis Mecenat
2015
IN THOKOZA
English
Published by Rubis Mecenat
2013
Born in 1997 in Thokoza, South Africa. Lives and works in Thokoza, South Africa.
Sibusiso Bheka is a South African photographer known for his evocative nighttime images that document the everyday reality of township life, particularly in Thokoza where he grew up. His work, often captured just before darkness falls, balances the gritty legacy of South Africa’s violent past with a poetic celebration of the quiet, surreal beauty found in ordinary moments.
A graduate of the Vaal University of Technology (2018), Bheka is currently the Project Assistant for Of Soul and Joy, a photography education program in South Africa. He first gained recognition with his series Stop Nonsense, which was exhibited as part of the 11th edition of the Rencontres de Bamako – African Biennale of Photography in 2017 and later toured internationally, including a showing at the National Museum of World Culture in Leiden, Netherlands (2018).
Bheka has exhibited widely, with work shown at the Ithuba Arts Gallery (2013), Addis Foto Fest (2014), Ghent International Photo Festival (2015), Johannesburg Art Gallery (2016), Croisière during the Arles Photo Encounters (2020), and the Bristol Photo Festival (2021). He was shortlisted for the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellowship (2018) and the Belfast Photo Festival. Most recently, he completed an international residency in Lisbon, with a solo exhibition and catalogue forthcoming, and he is set to present a solo show at Paris Photo 2025.
STOP NONSENSE
2016 – ongoing
AT NIGHT THEY WALK WITH ME
2013 – 2015
