Snelihle Maphumulo was born and raised in Durban, South Africa. She works with found material, particularly sheep hide. Her works explore the fruitful tensions of Zulu tradition and Christian faith. Through an intuitive engagement with material and form, Maphumulo draws on both personal and collective memory, allowing her work to unfold as a layered dialogue between tradition, belief and belonging. Maphumulo was awarded the Sasol New Signatures prize in both 2024 and 2025, recognizing her as one of South Africa’s most promising emerging artists. In 2024, she completed her Honours in Fine Art at Rhodes University, further developing her practice in sculpture, installation, and material exploration. Maphumulo’s practice explores the space where Christian faith and Zulu tradition meet; in harmony, tension, and sometimes within the uncertainty of being in-between. She works with materials that carry symbolic, cultural and tactile meaning, including cow hide, sheep hide and found objects. Rather than treating these materials as passive surfaces, she allows them to participate in the making. Their textures and histories guide her gestures, making touch a quiet form of testimony