The vivid brushwork and confident colour palette of Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s paintings suggest a mature hand. But there is something about their composition that is indicative of the artist’s youth. They suggest the inexhaustible variety of life while pointing to the experience, familiar to every digital native, of scrolling through Instagram and Tumblr. Within the same canvas, she often shows multiple domestic scenes, intermingling images from her family archives with found photography of unknown figures.
We asked the 27-year-old artist to create the limited-edition cover of our January 2021 Next Generation issue. The painting that she created, Plains of the Christmas Cow, is emblematic of her approach: the top half is dominated by a cow in repose, sketched in evocative white strokes on a crimson background; while the bottom half incorporates a black-and-white family portrait, a smiling toddler, a cave painting-like scene of hunters encircling a stag, and a leafy potted plant.
‘The painting or image is meant to be read as a film reel which cuts and skips from one scene to the other,’ she explains. ‘Unrelated images meet at junctions on the canvas, and the viewer is invited to fill the gaps, much like how we fill and edit gaps of Instagram or Tumblr accounts.’
Within the magazine, Hwami tells writer Amah-Rose Abrams how she found her voice as an artist. Hwami started drawing as a child, inspired by the Cartoon Network. Then as a pre-teen, she turned to Tumblr both as a creative outlet and as a way to discover her sense of self: ‘I spent a lot of time on the internet as a pre-teen and in that socially awkward stage of my life, I found it more comfortable to escape and exist in cyberspace,’ she recalls.
RELATED STORY
Hwami’s paintings feel contemporary in many ways: there are hints of social media within the grid structure, and the juxtaposition of varied imagery that reveal a sense of common humanity; while the motifs are decidedly international, representing a generation that is comfortable traversing geographical and cultural boundaries. As Abrams writes, ‘[Hwami’s] paintings fuse aesthetics from all the places she has lived, from Zimbabwe to London, with an occasional nod to the graphic cartoon aesthetic she grew up loving. You can see the influence of these animations in the movement in these paintings. Even as the figures are static, the compositions they sit within are not.’
Our decision to feature Hwami in our Next Generation issue proved prescient – just a day before the issue arrived on newsstands, the artist joined the roster of Victoria Miro gallery. Her first exhibition with them will be held in summer 2021.
Read more about Hwami, and discover Wallpaper’s edit of the most groundbreaking creative talents of the next generation in our January issue – now on newsstands and available as a free PDF download.
INFORMATION
Kudzanai-Violet Hwami’s cover is the latest addition to the Wallpaper* limited-edition cover series, which features a specially created artwork by a different artist, architect or designer each issue. Limited-edition covers are available to subscribers only; for more information, see wallpaper.com/subscribe
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the weekIt was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Peugeot brings back a classic performance badge for the electric era: meet the E-208 GTiPeugeot has unveiled the new E-208 GTi, a performance EV designed to hark back to a golden age of compact sports cars
-
This 18th-century Puglian villa has been restored with contemporary touchesThe updated stonemason's workshop is a haven of centuries-old brick and sophisticated made-in-Italy design
-
Kaari Upson’s unsettling, grotesque and seductive world in DenmarkThe Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark is staging the first comprehensive survey of late artist Kaari Upson’s work
-
Inside the brilliant and short career of Paul Thek: 'The goal was to live a creative existence as a maker – and he lived in a saint-like fashion'Paul Thek's paintings are now viewable at Thomas Dane Gallery in London, in an exhibition curated by Kenny Schacter and Jonathan Anderson.
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
Cassi Namoda is rethinking stained-glass windows at Turner Contemporary in MargateThe artist drew from an eclectic range of references when considering the traditional medium for a Turner Contemporary window overlooking the beach – she tells us more
-
Remembering Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian curator due to lead the 2026 Venice BiennaleKouoh, who died this week aged 57, was passionate about the furtherance of African art and artists, and also contributed to international shows, being named the first African woman to curate the Venice Biennale
-
Artist Zumba Luzamba on the vibrant aesthetic of Congolese fashion rebels, the sapeursThe Congolese artist takes a deep dive into a fashion subculture in his show at London's Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery. ‘I draw people in with style so that they can sit with deeper themes,’ he says
-
‘The work is an extension of myself’: Michaela Yearwood-Dan on her debut show at Hauser & WirthLondon-based artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan continues her rapid rise, unveiling monumental new paintings in ‘No Time for Despair’
-
The largest posthumous survey of Helen Frankenthaler puts her in the frame with Pollock and RothkoGuggenheim Bilbao hosts 'Painting Without Rules', a major exhibition of soak-stain innovator Helen Frankenthaler’s paintings that also includes Pollock and Rothko
