Turiya Magadlela is a South African contemporary artist whose work engages with personal, political, and material histories using domestic fabrics and those found in public spaces and institutions.

Born in Johannesburg in 1978, Magadlela draws from her lived experience as a Black woman and mother in post-apartheid South Africa, working with pantyhose, correctional service uniforms, and other everyday fabrics to construct abstract compositions through techniques such as cutting, stitching, folding, and stretching. These gestures are informed by traditional female labor and resistance practices, transforming the materials into potent symbols of resilience, incarceration, sensuality, and care.

Her practice has become synonymous with a quiet, formal intensity that traverses the lines between minimalism, Black consciousness, and feminist discourse. Magadlela interrogates systems of power, commodification, and the objectification of Black bodies, creating works that are both deeply intimate and universally resonant.

She was awarded the prestigious FNB Joburg Art Prize in 2015, and in 2018, was shortlisted for the Jean-François Prat Prize in Paris. That same year, she was named one of the Top 10 African Artists to Invest In by TimesLive. In 2025, she was featured in ArtForum and Brooklyn Rail, continuing her trajectory as one of the leading voices in contemporary African art.