Misheck MasamvuI Know Every Route of this Country, 2024
Misheck Masamvu’s practice is rooted in the expressive potential of gesture, material, and process. Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, his work engages with personal and collective memory while searching for new ways of being in the present. Through dense layering and intuitive brushwork, Masamvu creates surfaces that feel both immediate and reflective, where the act of painting becomes a site for recording time, emotion, and thought.
At the core of his practice is a commitment to uncertainty. Masamvu’s compositions resist fixed interpretation, instead unfolding through textured marks and fluid forms that mirror the contradictions of lived experience. His paintings operate as open structures – simultaneously forming and unravelling – where identity, language, and history are never fully resolved but constantly shifting. This approach reflects a broader interrogation of the psychological and political forces that shape life in postcolonial southern Africa. Masamvu’s work invites viewers into a space of active engagement. His tangled lines and gestural marks speak to internal conflict, resilience, and the quiet negotiations between self and world. Rather than offering answers, his practice encourages introspection.
