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.