Misheck Masamvu (Zimbabwe 1980-)
Hood Poison

oil on canvas

Artwork date: 2015
Exhibited: Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, 'Still Still', 15 September to 20 October 2016.
Exchange Rates*: USD 21 716,06 – 32 574,09
EURO 19 734,61 – 29 601,91
GBP 16 607,82 – 24 911,73

(1)

140 x 255 cm

Provenance:

Private collection, Johannesburg.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Misheck Masamvu (b. 1980, Penhalonga, Zimbabwe) is a socially engaged artist whose expressive practice portrays discourses and scenes of post-independence Zimbabwe. Working primarily with oil on canvas, Masamvu channels the chaos and contradictions of lived experience into densely layered compositions. His painting style is characterised by gestural brushwork, saturated colour, and a deliberate sense of disorder, capturing the instability and ambiguity of his subjects and their environment.

While trained in realist techniques at Atelier Delta in Harare and later at the Kunste Akademie in Munich, Masamvu moved away from classical representation in favour of a more experimental visual language. His work draws attention to the impact of political dysfunction and failed economic policies, while also probing more existential questions around the state of ‘being’ and the preservation of dignity. Often paired with sharp, disarming titles, his paintings evoke a tension between humour and despair, and clarity and confusion: a reflection of the complexities of contemporary Zimbabwean life.

In the painting presented here, flower-like forms erupt across the canvas in bursts of crimson, yellow, violet and mossy green, creating a thicket of motion and emotion. The surface is alive with expressive marks, at once blooming, dripping and collapsing, evoking both natural abundance and slow decay. These plant-like motifs serve less as decoration than as metaphor: a language of instability and transformation through which Masamvu navigates a collective terrain. The work resists stillness and coherence, insisting instead on ambiguity and layered meaning.

Amy Carrington

COLLECTOR'S NOTE

• Masamvu was amongst the first Zimbabwean artists to ever be represented at the Venice Biennale, when the country made its debut at the 54^th Venice Biennale in 2011.

• Masamvu is represented by Goodman Gallery, where he has exhibited extensively. Earlier this year, the artist presented a solo exhibition at Goodman Gallery London titled Mubato (The Handle), which included work created during his residency at G.A.S. Foundation, Nigeria.

• Recent solo exhibitions include: Show me how ruins make a home, A Gentil Carioca, São Paulo (2024); Exit Wounds, Goodman Gallery, New York (2024), which followed the artist’s inclusion in the group show Translations: Afro-Asian Poetics, curated by Dr. Zoe Whitley at The Institutum, Singapore (2024); and Pivot, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Brussels (2023).

• Recent group shows include: Kuvhunura/Kupinda nemwenje mudziva, Fondation Blachere Bonnieux, France (2024); Inside Out, Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva (2022); Witness: Afro Perspectives, El Espacio 23, Miami, USA (2020); and Allied with Power: African and African Diaspora Art from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami (2020).

• Major international participation includes: 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).

COLLECTIONS:

The artist is represented in numerous local and international collections, notably, the A4 Arts Foundation, Cape Town; Uieshema Collection, Tokyo; Perez Art Museum, Miami; Pigozzi Collection, Geneva; Taguchi Art Collection, Tokyo; Fukutake Foundation, Auckland; COMMA Foundation, Damme; ANA Collection, Lagos; Sigg Art Foundation, Le Castellet; Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Geneva and Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCCA), Cape Town.