Misheck MasamvuConvenient Truths, 2022
‘Convenient Truths’ stands among the more abstract works in Misheck Masamvu’s practice, offering a composition in which form is diffused and figuration only faintly suggested. In this painting, space and line become tools for navigating psychological terrain rather than mapping any recognisable geography. The gestural energy and layered brushwork recall the legacy of artists like Willem de Kooning, whose expressive approach to abstraction similarly channelled emotion, conflict, and sensation into paint. Masamvu builds an imagined environment where marks function as thoughts, and the canvas becomes a site of internal reckoning.
Rather than presenting a resolved image, ‘Convenient Truths’ proposes a space of searching. Each layer of paint, each erratic line or shift in tone, reflects an attempt to make sense of fragmented experiences or unresolved decisions. The result is a painting that resists clarity, asking the viewer not to decode it but to dwell within its ambiguity.
