GALLERY
Batsirai Muskwe
Batsirai Muskwe's work centers around an enduring exploration of texture and a layered build-up of form through the use of creative mixed media techniques. Working primarily in acrylic and oil, he presents vivid paintings that merge the abstract with the figurative, eschewing the realistic for the emotive, echoing his belief in the therapeutic qualities of art. Batsirai was born in Zimbabwe in 1974 and grew up in Harare. During his time at Lord Malvern High School he developed his passion and love for Art. He is a self taught artist who indulged in a lot of research and made good use of the National Gallery facilities to develop his skills and techniques. Around 1995 he took a keen interest in stone sculpting and his growing passion for art led him to take up a course in Screen Printing at the Harare Polytechnic. Afterwhich, he began painting professionally and selling his work through the Zimbabwean National Gallery. His first exhibition was in 1996 at Wawana Gallery Maastricht in the Netherlands. He is proud to have sold many works that are in private collections in Zimbabwe, England, America, Japan, China, Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Holland, Germany and Botswana.
Prudence Chimutuwah
Prudence Chimutuwah employs collaging with traditional painting techniques to produce richly textured and layered work with compelling visual imagery exploring femininity, personal and societal identity, and issues surrounding female empowerment in contemporary society. Working with a mix of acrylic paints and with paper cuttings from printed magazines, money, music notes, she creates powerful images that capture the strength and vulnerability of her subjects whilst referencing the arduous journey of the modern African woman battling with gender dynamics and the fight for equality, in addition to her everyday struggles. Prudence's work is about the emergence of the 21st century woman as she steps up to take charge in spaces seemingly dominated by males. She is informed and inspired by the everyday life of women; their economic aspirations, desire for spirituality, need for attention and energy for hustling. Women are the incubators of society - what is within them is nurtured and multiplied hence my personal affiliation as a creative woman. She hopes to deposit positive energy in women in my generation and beyond.
Tonely Ngwenya
Tonely Ngwenya's work is deeply embedded in modern African culture depicting emotionally evocative stories and settings. Tonely's use of the palette knife gives his paintings a uniquely rich texture. He examines the human condition of the modern day African through an enduring exploration of identity and personal emotional journeys through grief, solace and spirituality depicting a spectrum of individuals going through the hardships of traditional rural life. Tonely was born in 1976 and honed his skills at the B.A.T School of art, National Gallery of Zimbabwe where he studied painting, graphics, drawing, design, sculpture, photography and dry point printing. Painting proved to be his passion as it was the form in which he could convey his subjects personality and emotion in the most comprehensive and digestible way. His works are mainly composed using a palette knife, which has helped him develop a uniquely captivating style, layering texture to compound the profound emotion his pieces evoke.
Calvin Chimutuwah
Present in the works of Calvin Chimutuwah is an eclectic visual vocabulary which conveys varying textures of lives lived and spaces occupied by the urban African. Calvin's work depicts dynamic, yet recognisable scenes populated with figures, mostly children, caught in random moments of their daily lives. His work incorporates the use of metaphors and familiar imagery in telling multi-layered stories of everyday life, socio-economic conditions and societal structures. Combining Abstract Minimalism and Realism styles, his work juxtaposes the real against the imagined, creating a hybrid space for activating memory. Born 1982 in Zimbabwe, Calvin holds a Bachelor of Fine Art and lives and works in Harare from his private studio. His artistic focus is figurative paintings of children in oils on canvas because, in the words of Calvin himself: “I can hardly live without expressing my love, respect and view of nature and society from my heart to my mind through the paint brush to the canvas. I believe creativity is some phenomena which makes this world a better place and more enjoyable.Children exceptionally inspire me - they are lovely, innocent and have no prejudice - what you see is what you get. As I feel obliged to comment on society, I believe children are the most accurate measure you can use to scrutinize a society's capacity, values and influence. A child's communication skills, dress, appeal and countenance can tell you a lot about the child and their background, hence the society at large. This calls for a creative person to be sensitive and be down to earth to understand the society from that juvenile and inquisitive perspective. In my work I seek to make my audience understand the world from that perspective, and question things as you once did when we were all young.”
Webster Mubayirenyi
Webster Mubayirenyi's work is characterized by his fascination with vividly coloured terraced techniques. His work echoes and responds to the landscapes and environments in which he finds himself. His highly codified and conceptual imagery seeks to connect his viewers to the universality of his experiences offering instinctive speculations on the pressures that spiritual and political dichotomies bring to bear on the lives of Africans in modern society. Born in 1976. Webster did his Visual Arts Education at B.A.T School of Arts under National Gallery of Zimbabwe graduating with a first class pass. He was proud to earn the Progressive Artist award in 2009 having studied printmaking, sculpture, fabric design and visual arts. He is enthused by spiritual dreams, focusing on the beautiful landscape of colorful abstraction and how this interacts with traditional political and social activities. He enjoys working on canvas primarily using acrylic and oil paints. In selecting his subjects, he often draws inspiration from the rural ways of farming, locally and internationally, using terraced techniques. He loves to work with vibrant ethnic colors as he strives to draw the attention of viewers to the art of agriculture and farming, which has been the vital sector in Zimbabwe's economic progression. His work is inspired and influenced by several artists, namely Luis Merque, Handert Warsser and Collin Carr.
