Senzeni Marasela attended Jonimfundo, a school, in Vosloorus, where she matriculated in 1994. After a one-day trip to the University of the Witwatersrand in 1992, she decided to enroll there. She developed her multimedia and performative practice at the Wits School of Arts, graduating in 1998.[6]
Marasela's work has been regularly shown since the Martienssen Prize Exhibition in 1997. She was accepted as an exhibiting artist by the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg after being part of the group exhibition, Not Quite a Christmas Exhibition. She had her first solo exhibition at the Iziko South African National Gallery's Fresh exhibition series in 2000, which was part of a residency program. In 2003, she started a long-term performance entitled Theodorah comes to Johannesburg, which is based on stories her mother told about her 11-hour travel from Mvenyane to Johannesburg.[7]
In 2011, Marasela began work as a full-time artist and was part of the Johannesburg Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.[8]
Marasela's mother's collection of doilies and Victorian lace works, handed down in her family, influenced her artistic practice. Marasela's work explores the experiences of Black, South African women across a range of media. This includes photography, video, prints, and mixed-media installations that involve textiles and embroidery. In her work, she translates memories of struggle and urbanization through the use of material culture and narratives. For example, the use of the color red refers to cultural memories around the time of the "red dust," a period of drought in the early 1930s in South Africa. Her performances interweave these elements and multi-media works, making visible the dimension of the every day[9] through objects and clothes.[10]
She is known for her six-year performance work Ijermani Lam[11]which "materializes the condition of waiting"[12] by wearing the same red dress every day from 1 October 2013 to 1 October 2019. The original dresses were part of the group the exhibition, "Made Visible. Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (February–May 2019).[13] Her work taps into cultural memories, such as using archival materials like newspapers and photographs printed onto colonial textiles. It tells stories of black women in South Africa, such as Sarah Baartman and Marasela's mother, Theodorah Mpofukazi Marasela, through series such as Covering Sarah Baartman (2011), Sarah, Senzeni and Theodorah come to Joburg (2011), Theodorah, (2005),[14]Waiting for Gebane (2017), Izithombe Zendawo Esizithandayo (2017). Marasela's artwork builds an "intimate archive",[15] giving voice to experiences of black women.
2010: Senzeni Marasela. Beyond Booty: Covering Sarah Baartman and other Tales. Axis Gallery, New York and New Jersey, in association with submerged art, USA
2013: Africa curating Africa. ABSA Contemporary, Johannesburg, South Africa, (Travelling Exhibition)
2012: Ongoing. Present Tense: Arts of Contemporary Africa.The Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, USA
2012: Red. 5 Pieces Gallery, Berne, Switzerland
2012: ME1. Fried Contemporary, Pretoria, South Africa
2011: New traditions: Louise McCagg & Senzeni Marasela. Collaboration at A.I.R. Gallery, in Association with Axis Gallery and Alma-on-Dobbin, New York, USA
2011: Impressions from South Africa: Printed Art/1965 to Now. The Paul J. Sachs Prints and Illustrated Books Galleries, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2010–2013: Translations into Jewellery. Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa – Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
2009: Dystopia. Unisa Art Gallery, Pretoria, South Africa – Museum Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa – Oliewenhuis Art Museum, Mangaung, Bloemfontein, South Africa – Jan Colle Galerij, Ghent, Belgium.
^Crawshay-Hall, Jayne (2013). Trans-Africa. Africa curating Africa. Johannesburg: Absa Art Gallery. pp. 14–15, 52–53.
^Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha (2011). Gordon-Chipembere, Natasha (ed.). Under Cuvier's Microscope: The Dissection of Michelle Obama in the Twenty-First Century. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 165–180. ISBN9780230117792.
^Richards, Colin (2004). Perryer, Sophie (ed.). 10 Years 100 Artists. Art in a democratic South Africa. Cape Town: Bell-Roberts. pp. 230–233. ISBN9781868729876.
^Marasela, Senzeni (26 April 2018). "Creative dialogue with Senzeni Marasela". Art on our Mind (Interview). Interviewed by Dr Sharlene Khan. Grahamstown/Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa: Art on our Mind. 00:04:05-00:04:51.
^Ndebele, Njabulo S. (1984). "Turkish Tales". Staffrider. 6 (1): 24–48 – via South African History Online.
^Marasela, Senzeni (26 April 2018). "Creative dialogue with Senzeni Marasela". Art on our Mind (Interview). Interviewed by Dr Sharlene Khan. Grahamstown/Makhanda, Eastern Cape, South Africa: Art on our Mind. 00:18:25.