KUDZANAI-VIOLET HWAMI

Early Years and Background

Growing up in Zimbabwe until age nine, Hwami relocated to South Africa before moving to the United Kingdom at 17, a trajectory that deeply informs her work. After initially studying in Manchester, she earned a BA in Fine Art from Wimbledon College of Arts in 2016, followed by an MFA at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art in 2021. She currently lives and works in London.

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami Artworks

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s artworks combine painted, printed, and photographic elements, reflecting experiences of migration, memory, and digital image culture. Her practice is defined by a process of collage—digitally and physically—layering visuals from family archives, online sources, and memories to explore the construction of selfhood and the Black body’s representation in art.

Key Works and Developments

• In her debut solo exhibition, If You Keep Going South, You’ll Meet Yourself (Tyburn Gallery, 2017), Hwami interrogated dislocation and belonging through portraiture.
• At the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), she was the youngest artist to represent Zimbabwe, spotlighting diasporic narratives through large-scale figurative paintings.
• ‘Atom’ series (ongoing): Inspired by Whitman’s Song of Myself, these multi-canvas paintings interlace spiritual themes, bodily presence, and metaphysics, and were presented in her exhibition Incantations at Victoria Miro, London (2025).
• Hwami draws upon Afrobeats and Southern African music, as well as African and Western literary influences, infusing her work with both personal and philosophical layers.
• Her paintings recall childhood cartoons, resulting in vividly coloured, often confrontational portraits, examining gender, sexuality, and queerness within global Black contemporary art.

Select Awards and Accolades

• Clyde & Co. Art Award (2016)
• Young Achiever of the Year, Zimbabwean International Women’s Awards (2016)
• Apollo Magazine ‘40 Under 40 Africa’ (2020)

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami Exhibitions

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami has exhibited widely, both as a solo artist and as part of international group exhibitions in major art institutions.

Select Solo Exhibitions

• Incantations, Victoria Miro, London, 2025
• They have always been here, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands, 2025–26
• A Making of Ghosts, Victoria Miro, London, 2023
• When You Need Letters for Your Skin, Victoria Miro, London, 2021
• (15,952km) via Trans-Sahara Hwy N1, Gasworks, London, 2019
• If You Keep Going South, You’ll Meet Yourself, Tyburn Gallery, London, 2017

Select Group Exhibitions

• Corps et âmes, Bourse de Commerce, Pinault Collection, Paris, 2025
• When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, Bozar, Brussels, and Kunstmuseum Basel, 2024–25
• The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2024–25
• Venice Biennale, Zimbabwe Pavilion, 2019
• Hayward Gallery, London, 2021
• Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, 2017

Kudzanai-Violet Hwami FAQs

Ocula | 2025