Between 2006 and 2020, Nxumalo developed The Anthology of Youth, a body of photographic essays and video art documenting youth culture and the experience of growing up in post-industrial Southern Africa, with Johannesburg as its central point of reference.
In 2025, his practice expanded towards natural landscapes and land stewardship, marking an ongoing personal and artistic transition from an identity shaped by the industrial city towards a closer relationship with the natural world.
SELECTED AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS
2008: Edward Ruiz Mentorship Award, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2009: MTN CIT:Y Awards, 2nd Prize – Visual Art Category, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2010: ImpACT Award, 1st Prize – Visual Art Category, The Arts & Culture Trust, South Africa.
2010: Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans.
2011: Joop Swart Masterclass Nominee, World Press Photo, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
2012: Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Nominee, New York City, USA.
2015: First Book Award – Finalist, London, UK.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2009: Alternative-Kidz [Travelling Exhibition], Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2009: Alternative-Kidz [Travelling Exhibition], National School of Arts, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2009: Alternative-Kidz [Travelling Exhibition], Stevenson Gallery (Side Gallery Project), Cape Town, South Africa.
2011: Musa Nxumalo, Afronova Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2015: In Search Of…, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2017: 16 Shots, SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2020: We Are Running Out of Hashtags!, SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2010: …For Those Who Live In It, Mu Project Space, Eindhoven, Netherlands.
2011: The Night Show, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
2012: Shoe Shop Project, Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2013: My Joburg, Maison Rouge Gallery, Paris, France.
2013: Urban Scenographies, By Night Festival, Réunion Island.
2013: Space Between Us, ifa-Galerie, Berlin, Germany.
2013: Shoot to Kill, Kalashnikov Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2014: Short Change, Market Photo Workshop Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2014: Peregrinate, FNB Joburg Art Fair (Goethe-Institut), Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
2015: On Fire: Notions of Community in Post-Apartheid South Africa, curated by Manuel Osterholt, Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany.
2015: Peregrinate [Travelling Exhibition], Goethe-Institut, Côte d’Ivoire.
2015: Next Generation: Emerging Photographers from South Africa, Queens College, New York City, USA.
2016: Close to Home: New Photography from Africa, The Walther Collection – Project Space, New York City, USA.
2016: Peregrinate [Travelling Exhibition], Goethe-Institut, Nairobi, Kenya.
2016: Peregrinate [Travelling Exhibition], Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos, Nigeria.
2017: Platform Africa, Aperture Summer Issue Launch, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, New York City, USA.
2017: Être là, South Africa: A Contemporary Art Scene, Art/Afrique, le nouvel atelier, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France.
2017: Peregrinate [Travelling Exhibition], Goethe-Institut, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
2017: Peregrinate [Travelling Exhibition], Goethe-Institut, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2018: Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960–Today, ADAM – Brussels Design Museum, Brussels, Belgium.
2019: Crossing Night: Regional Identities × Global Context, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, USA.
2019: Africa State of Mind [Travelling Exhibition], Impressions Gallery, Bradford, UK.
2019: Africa State of Mind [Travelling Exhibition], Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, USA.
2019: Africa State of Mind [Travelling Exhibition], Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, UK.
2019: Night Fever: Designing Club Culture 1960–Today, ADAM – Brussels Design Museum, Brussels, Belgium.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Artspace.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia.
2020: NIRIN – 22nd Biennale of Sydney, National Art School, Sydney, Australia.
SELECTED COMMISSIONS
2013–2014: Roodepoort Exhibition Project, Public Affairs Research Institute, South Africa.
2014: Atlantic Philanthropies Project, Magnum Foundation, New York City, USA.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa.
The Silo Hotel Collection, Cape Town, South Africa.
Pigozzi Collection, Geneva, Switzerland.
Genop Collection, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Leridon Collection, Paris, France.
Cloud Seven, Brussels, Belgium.
Several private collections.