Princia Matungulu

Matungulu’s artistic practice involves a combination of weaving, sculpture and storytelling. She employs weaving as a means of understanding Congolese culture, norms and values related to ideas of ‘proper’ womanhood, which sometimes overlap and intersect with those of women from elsewhere in the African diaspora. Over the past two years, Matungulu has developed a powerful body of work that depicts Congolese parables known as “Harishi” in Swahili. Her interest in these folktales stems from a concern about the disappearance of these and other African stories, in part due to the dominance of Western media and literature.

Matungulu holds a BFA from Wits University. She was awarded the Young Womxn Studio Bursary for 2021-2022 at the Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, and was a finalist in the Wits Young Artist Award (2021). She has exhibited at the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg (2020) and with Guns & Rain in the two-person exhibition You’re a Bird, Sing a Song (2023). In 2024, Matungulu has exhibited at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair, 1-54 Art Fair London, and as part of the all-women show Soft Power, Too, in Johannesburg. She will exhibit once again at 1-54 London in October 2025.