Mimmo Scognamiglio Gallery is pleased to present Exodus, the second solo exhibition of African artist Tafadzwa Tega hosted in its Milan spaces.
For the occasion, the Zimbabwean artist has created a new body of works on canvas that underscore the unmistakable stylistic signature of his pictorial research and highlight his albeit constant evolution. As the title of the exhibition suggests, Exodus, the focal point of his aesthetic practice remains the artist's personal narrative made up of stories of migration, claiming success and loss of cultural identity.
The artist elaborates and composes photographic scenes, through which he later creates the brightly coloured portraits on canvas: the people portrayed, their poses, and the floral and garish backgrounds are part of an alphabet of memories and feelings from his homeland and family, while the props are a testament to the injustices suffered by the characters to whom they are accompanied or their tales of social redemption. For example, books, almost always present in Tega's paintings, are meant to symbolise the feeling of cultural revenge that immigration brings. New elements, on the other hand, take on the weight of the abuse they have suffered, such as the dog, which tells the story of educated personalities who, as a result of arriving in foreign places, were denied their position, and were only allowed to be allowed to look after other people's dogs.
Tega's paintings therefore maintain a seemingly cheerful and light-hearted rhythm that at times betrays the true intent of the work: to be a sincere and intimate narrative of the difficulties and feelings that accompany the choice to leave one's homeland.
Press release courtesy Mimmo Scognamiglio Artecontemporanea.
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