Sungi Mlengeya was born in 1991 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She is a self-taught artist who works primarily in the acrylic medium on canvas creating paintings that are free, minimalist and with a curious use of negative space. Most of the works consist of dark figures in minimal shades of black and browns against perfectly white backgrounds, a commemoration of women who surround her.  In 2020, Sungi was honoured in Apollo 40 Under 40 Africa, a selection the most inspirational young people in the African art world; and in 2022 graced the Johnnie Walker and Trace Africa Top 30 list of leading creatives in the continent.

The artist’s solo exhibition Don’t Try, Don’t Not Try with the B.LA Art Foundation in Vienna partly benefited Women without Borders whose headquarters are also in the city. (Un)Choreographed, another solo exhibition that took off in June 2022 marked the reopening of the home of London’s Africa Centre in Southwark. In 2021, the artist presented a solo booth at Art Basel Miami Beach titled Unsettled Minds following her debut solo exhibition Just Disruptions at Afriart Gallery in Kampala earlier that year. Another solo project was a booth at Investec Cape Town Art Fair’s SOLO section in 2020.

The artist was part of A Force to Be Reckoned with by UN Women in 2021, an art exhibit and auction benefiting black women across the world. Group exhibitions include museum shows When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting at the Zeitz MOCCA in Cape town 2022 now showing at the Kunstmuseum Basel until November 2024 and The Beauty of Diversity Albertina Moder. Other shows include Black Voices: Friend of My Mind Ross-Sutton Gallery, The Medium is the Message Unit London, Drawn Together Unit London, 1-54 Highlights Christie’s London 2020, Playing to the Gallery and Surfaces II: Gender Identity Rebellion Afriart Gallery, 1-54 Art Fair 2020 London and New York, and Latitudes Art Fair 2019 in Johannesburg.