Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, Misheck Masamvu’s works allow him to address the past while searching for a way of being in the world. His layered painted surfaces and brushstrokes, which are almost visceral, give a sense of multiple temporalities existing within a singular picture plane. Beneath the surface of one painted image, lies an infinite number of images. Masamvu’s abstracted figures transform and transmute depending on the vantage point, embodying both political and social turmoil captured through the history of his homeland, Zimbabwe.

“I use figuration and abstraction in my work because I am looking for an alternative space – one that is against the forced ideology of government and the breakdown of the pursuit of humanity. For this, the symbolism of the landscape and the figure in constant states of entangled metamorphosis are important. I am aware of the communion of the body, the soil and spirit and am interested in how transfiguration and memoirs of body and soul can evoke a real sense of vulnerability”

— Misheck Masamvu, 2021