Zimbabwe native Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s engrossing work explores gender, spirituality, and differing cultures. Currently based in London, she crafts paintings that also implement pastels, charcoal, and other materials. Her work has been shown at the Royal Scottish Academy, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Shonibare Studios in London, and beyond.
“Hwami’s bright, irreverent oil paintings design scenes belonging to a futuristic vision of African life, a fictional utopia filled with creativity and without borders,” the artist says. “Her work is a celebration of Afro-punk, LGBTQ, and internet sub-cultures, shot through with witty political commentary. Having lived in Zimbabwe, South Africa and the UK, she is able to expertly articulate issues around diaspora, displacement and identity, forging universal narratives with an autobiographical touch.”
Last year, the artist received the Clyde & Co Art Award and Cass Art Materials Grant, as well as the Young Achiever of the Year at the Zimbabwean International Women’s Awards.
Photographer Henrik Isaksson Garnell “sculpts” his imagery with natural elements such as bones and plant matter, manmade objects, digital effects, and electronic ephemera. The result includes his new series “In Treatment,” a meditation on psychotherapy. The work moves between the cerebral and the surreal.
