Kudzanai-Violet Hwami has joined Victoria Miro’s artist roster.
Portrait of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, 2019. Photo by Jo Metson Scott, courtesy Victoria Miro.
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami has joined Victoria Miro’s artist roster. The Zimbabwe-born, U.K.-based painter will be included in an online exhibition presented by the gallery as part of the Reprieve Collective, launching today on the Vortic Collect app. Her first in-person exhibition with the gallery will take place in summer 2021.
Hwami, who grew up in South Africa, is best known for her intimate figurative portraiture, which often focuses on the minutiae of South African life. Her richly-rendered subjects are contrasted with vivid gestural backgrounds, which often combine abstract color fields, pared-down patterning, and a variety of other media such as digital collage, silkscreen, pastels and charcoal.
Hwami described her process in a statement:
With the collapsing of geography and time and space, no longer am I confined in a singular society but simultaneously I am experiencing Zimbabwe and South Africa and the U.K., in my mind. I’m in the U.K., but I carry those places with me everywhere I go.
Hwami’s profile has risen dramatically in recent years. In 2019, she was included in the 58th Venice Biennale, where she presented at Zimbabwe’s pavilion. 2019 also saw her debut solo institutional exhibition at Gasworks in London. Earlier this year, she was included in Victoria Miro’s online group show “I See You,” which centered on depictions of male subjects by female painters. According to Artsy data, Hwami’s recent achievements have been reflected in growing interest in her work on the platform. Between 2017 and 2020, the average number of inquiries made on each work of hers on the platform increased by a factor of more than eight.
