Kufa Makwavarara was born in 1983 in Harare, Zimbabwe.
He began drawing at school age, whereupon his teachers encouraged him to devote himself to art. In 1999, he won first place in the UNESCO ASSOCIATED SCHOOLS PROJECT NETWORK. From 2001 to 2003, Kufa studied at the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design in Harare.
In 2000, the young artist began exhibiting at Gallery Delta and the Zimbabwe National Art Gallery, whose permanent collection includes two of his paintings. In 2018/2019, works by Makwavarara were featured in the highly acclaimed exhibition Five Bhob - Painting at the End of an Era at MOCAA Zeitz. The artist now lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa.
Kufa Makwavarara is an attentive observer of his environment. In his mostly large-format expressive paintings, he often addresses the political and social conditions in his home country Zimbabwe. Where he comments on grievances, injustices and political aberrations with canvas and brush, he does so in all clarity, but never without irony and humour, time and again also with caricatures and "traditional symbols", such as pots.
Ceramic pots are part of Zimbabwe's material culture. They are everyday objects traditionally used in the domestic environment. The markings engraved on them often have cultural significance. By transforming these pots into politicised caricatures, Makwavarara highlights the everyday impact of politics on the country's citizens.
In other works in the exhibition, which were created during the pandemic, Makwavarara takes up this theme and processes it in his typical, highly detailed, often colourful painting style.
