Misheck Masamvu
Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, Misheck Masamvu’s (b. 1980, Mutare, Zimbabwe) works allow him to address the past while searching for a way of being in the world. As one of the most significant artists from Zimbabwe, Masamvu’s work offers a renewed understanding of visual culture in Africa and the decolonial project more broadly. Rhythmic lines and layered fields of colour have become a prominent language for Masamvu to explore structures of power and how history comes to bear on the contemporary moment, but also how one can adapt to a new way of interacting with the world.
Selected solo exhibitions: 'Show me how ruins make a home,' A Gentil Carioca, São Paulo (2024); 'Exit Wounds,' Goodman Gallery, New York (2024); 'Safety Pin,' Goodman Gallery, Cape Town (2023); 'Pivot,' Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Brussels (2023); 'Talk to me while I’m eating,' Goodman
Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2021); 'Hata,' Goodman Gallery, Cape Town (2019); 'Still Still,' Goodman Gallery, Cape Town; 'Misheck Masamvu,' Institut Français, Paris, France (2015); 'Disputed Seats,' Influx Contemporary Art, Lisbon, Portugal (2009).
Notable group exhibitions include: 'Kuvhunura/Kupinda nemwenje mudziva,' Fondation Blachere Bonnieux, France (2024); 'Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics,' The Institutum, Singapore (2024); 'Inside Out,' Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva (2022); 'Witness: Afro Perspectives,' El Espacio 23, Miami, USA (2020); 'Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection,' Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami (2020); 'Two Together,' Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2020); 'Five Bobh: Painting at the End of an Era,' Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2017); 'Africa 2.0 > is there a Contemporary African art?,' Influx Contemporary Art, Lisbon (2010); 'Art, Migration and Identity,' Africa Museum, Arnhem (2008); and 696, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare (2008).
Major international exhibitions include: 'The ‘t’ is silent,' 8th Biennial of Painting, Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium (2022); 'STILL ALIVE,' 5th Aichi Triennale, Aichi, Japan (2022), NIRIN , 22nd Sydney Biennale, Sydney (2020); 'Incerteza Viva (Live Uncertainty),' the 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2016) and his international debut at Zimbabwe’s inaugural Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).
Collections include: A4 Arts Foundation (Cape Town, South Africa); Braunsfelder Family Collection (Cologne, Germany); Uieshema Collection (Tokyo, Japan); Perez Art Museum (Miami, USA); Pigozzi Collection (Geneva, Switzerland); Taguchi Art Collection (Tokyo, Japan); Fukutake Foundation (Auckland, New Zealand); COMMA Foundation (Damme, Belgium); ANA Collection (Lagos, Nigeria); Sigg Art Foundation, Le Castellet, France; Fondation Gandur pour l’Art (Geneva, Switzerland); and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Cape Town, South Africa).
Masamvu lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe.
