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MWOYO ARTS

SEPTEMBER to OCTOBER 1997

"Tribal Thoughts"
Oil paintings by Leslie Mukwakwame Musikavanhu

September 12th - October 27th, 1997
Opening Reception Friday, September 12th, 7-9 p.m.

This exhibit features oil paintings by Zimbabwean artist Leslie Mukwakwame Musikavanhu. His paintings, layered with color and full of vitality, are accompanied by the poems which have inspired them. Born into a racially segregated Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Musikavanhu was drawn to art from a very young age. His experiences as a youth in a colonial society have greatly impacted his work. "I lived in a culture that has been inflected with influences from Europe, Asia, and more recently the Americas. It is the impact of these that conceived the nostalgia from which my captured moments are derived." He continues, "Much like the healers of yesteryear, I attempt... through my painting, sculpture and poetry to bridge the gap between Hunhu (pertaining to the ancestral spirits) and reality. In my conscious and sub-conscious existence, I endeavor to catalog the multitude of images that I have encountered either as real objects, or as objects reeling in my head."

Mr. Musikavanhu will be the guest of honor at an Exhibit Preview & Champagne Supper in celebration of Mwoyo Arts' second anniversary on September 11. The Public Artist's Reception will take place on Friday, September 12, 7-9 p.m. Mr. Musikavanhu will be reading a selection of his poetry at this event.

Works:


Musikavanhu, Leslie M.
oil and wood on canvas 
	Dancing to the call
	of wilderness's
	messenger.
	Quick,
	sideways
	crustacean
	motions
	of hips
	detached
	from the grips
	of a body's
	limitations,
	and gravity's
	levitation.
	Emancipation
	of a soul
	once held captive,
	in a hole
	of logic's
	contradiction.

	by L. Mukwakwame Musikavanhu

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