Lerato Shadi

“It serves to challenge myself, and hopefully my audience as well, in how I/we are complicit in the violence of historical erasure by not fighting for a more inclusive and accurate historical narrative. I realized that—by just blindly or lazily accepting an inaccurate history—I would be sanctioning the problematic dominant narrative with my own inactivity”. - Lerato Shadi

Lerato Shadi’s work challenges common assumptions to critique Western notions of history, making visible that which is overlooked or obscured. Working across video, performance, and installation—often employing repetitive processes—she advocates for centering, rather than merely including, the marginalized body as the primary subject of narrative experience. By placing herself at the forefront of her practice, Shadi confronts the politics of cultural erasure and structural exclusion.

Lerato Shadi (born in Mahikeng, South Africa; lives and works in Berlin) studied visual art at the University of Johannesburg and earned a MA in Spatial Strategies from Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin in 2018. She received the Alumni Dignitas Award from the University of Johannesburg in 2018, and in the same year, Shadi was a fellow of the Villa Romana Prize in Florence, Italy.

Her work has been shown internationally in numerous exhibitions, including Sesc Pompeia, São Paulo (2025); Zeitz MOCAA (2025–2026) and the Norval Foundation, Cape Town (2024– 2025); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2023–2024); Bienalsur, Buenos Aires (2023); and Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (2022). Further highlights include the Palais de la Porte Dorée and the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris (2021); the 14th Curitiba Biennial, Brazil (2019); and solo shows at blank projects (2023, 2025), KINDL – Centre for Contemporary Art, Berlin, and the Kunstverein in Hamburg (2020). Shadi’s video work, Mabogo Dinku, was part of the 2020 Artists’ Film International programme organized by Whitechapel Gallery, London, and screened at art institutions globally. During the 2025 Black Berlin Black – Festivity, Shadi premiered her first holistic performance project at Ballhaus Naunynstraße, Berlin. In 2022, her monograph was published by Archive Books (Berlin-Dakar-Milano).