Oil on canvas

Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude

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​Born and raised in Mbare, Harare and Zimbabwe’s most vibrant and notorious ghetto, Nyaude works against the sweeping identity, which has been defined for Zimbabweans by the voice of the state and domestic and international media. His images oscillated between figuration, abstraction and hallucination, drawing from the restless energy of his neighbourhood and its youth, in a country, where more than 60% of the population is under the age of 26. Living on the edge between survival and chaos has been a call to poetry, swinging between brutal and sentimental but almost invariably cynical and satirical. His gesturally rendered effigies of proverbs and poignant vernacular idioms, defy characterisation other than the bursting drive to attain human dignity and quality of life that frequently appears beyond the reach of dreams.