Born in 1978 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Johannesburg-based artist Turiya Magadlela uses common cloths, from pantyhose to sheeting and correctional service uniforms. By stretching and folding these materials across wooden frames, Magadlela creates abstract compositions. After matriculating from the National School of the Arts, Turiya Magadlela studied at the Funda Community College under Charles Nkosi, the University of Johannesburg, and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

She has had solo exhibitions at Johannesburg Art Gallery (2015), Museum Africa, the Goethe Institute (as part of her JAG/Goethe institute young artist award 2003), and blank. Select group exhibitions include Furniture: a sculpture exhibition, Half-devil and half-child, and When Form Becomes Attitude (blank, Cape Town), The Poetry In Between: South-South (Goodman Gallery, Cape Town), and The Grote Oversteek (Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands). Turiya currently lives and works in Soweto, South Africa.