TERRENCE MUSEKIWA (b. 1990, Seke, Zimbabwe)
Terrence Musekiwa comes from a long line of sculptors. He started carving stone at the age of five, at first helping his father, Kennedy Musekiwa, and later moving away from traditional aesthetics. He breaks the divide between traditional and contemporary. While each work begins with the familiar toil of shaping the stone, works are then fused with a myriad of found and industrial objects. His visual language wrestles with convention to simultaneously challenge and pay homage to Zimbabwean tradition. His conceptual vernacular introduces a dialogue about present-day Zimbabwe, its mechanics, politics, micro and macro trade systems, hardships and a quality of magic that permeates the personal lives of its inhabitants.
Solo exhibitions include Standing on a line, not being on either side (2017) and Coming From Where We Are Going (2019), both at Catinca Tabacaru New York; and A House in A House at hFACTOR in Lagos, Nigeria (2019). In addition, he has been included in exhibitions internationally by public and private institutions in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Mantta, Utrecht, L’Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Tel Aviv, Miami, New York, Mexico City, and Harare. His work has been acquired into the permanent collections of The National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Villa Datris Foundation in France, and the US Department of State. In 2022, Musekiwa will represent Zimbabwe in the 59th Venice Biennial, and will be included in the 14th Dakar Biennale.