About
Malaika Temba (b. 1996, Washington, D.C.) draws from East African marketplaces, the histories of global trade, and feminist reimaginings of craft, to confront the intersections of care and capitalism, intimacy and exploitation through her painted tapestries. Her transnational perspective equips her with a lens attuned to globalization’s entanglements, producing works that illuminate both the connective potential and inequities embedded within systems of exchange.
Temba’s practice reflects a life shaped by globalization and migration. Transforming textile (a medium historically marginalized within the hierarchy of fine art) into one that bears the weight of labor and colonial histories, her large-scale tapestries, embroideries, and installations honor the generations of women whose quiet work has sustained households, economies, and cultures for millennia. At once intimate and global, Temba’s work extends the lineage of textile traditions into new forms as both cultural inheritance and contemporary intervention.
Temba is a MacDowell Fellow (2026), having also participated in residencies at Silver Art Projects (2024), MASS MoCA (2023), Art Omi (2023), and Fountainhead (2018). She was a finalist for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Cape Town (2025) and recipient of the YoungArts Jorge M. Pérez Award (2021). She has presented solo exhibitions with Gaa Gallery, Cologne (2025); Mindy Solomon, Miami (2024 and 2021); and Lilia Ben Salah, Paris (2023); and her work has been shown internationally at fairs including The Armory Show, New York; 1-54, London; Art Cologne; Art Abu Dhabi; and Expo Chicago.
In 2025 she debuted She Weaves White Gold at the North Carolina Museum of Art, her first institutional commission.
Temba’s practice reflects a life shaped by globalization and migration. Transforming textile (a medium historically marginalized within the hierarchy of fine art) into one that bears the weight of labor and colonial histories, her large-scale tapestries, embroideries, and installations honor the generations of women whose quiet work has sustained households, economies, and cultures for millennia. At once intimate and global, Temba’s work extends the lineage of textile traditions into new forms as both cultural inheritance and contemporary intervention.
Temba is a MacDowell Fellow (2026), having also participated in residencies at Silver Art Projects (2024), MASS MoCA (2023), Art Omi (2023), and Fountainhead (2018). She was a finalist for the Norval Sovereign African Art Prize, Cape Town (2025) and recipient of the YoungArts Jorge M. Pérez Award (2021). She has presented solo exhibitions with Gaa Gallery, Cologne (2025); Mindy Solomon, Miami (2024 and 2021); and Lilia Ben Salah, Paris (2023); and her work has been shown internationally at fairs including The Armory Show, New York; 1-54, London; Art Cologne; Art Abu Dhabi; and Expo Chicago.
In 2025 she debuted She Weaves White Gold at the North Carolina Museum of Art, her first institutional commission.