Maricho | Part Time

a solo exhibition by

Tafadzwa Masudi

1 - 16 December

When Tafadzwa Masudi left Zimbabwe in 2010 to look for a better future, his dream was to one day be a fulltime artist. He came from a home where family members were practising artists and where his mom and aunts made doilies that they’d take to Mozambique and Botswana to sell.

Like every other migrant, he had to do what he can to make a living and found work in a factory in Salt River, Cape Town. He used his spare time to paint and soon after his work started to appear in group shows and he found a home at the WORLDART gallery. Within a year he had a sell-out solo exhibition abroad and featured at art fairs in Cape Town, Johannesburg, London, Paris and New York.

The title of his solo exhibition that opens on 1 December at WORLDART in Cape Town, is Maricho.

“Maricho” is a Shona word that refers to an unchosen task, often undesirable, taken in order to survive. Masudi’s work deals with the dreams and hopes of migrant people. “I want to show their dignity and  remind the world that that these people are more than what popular narratives about them and their places of origin suggest,” he says. Through his lens, people are presented as individuals with pride, dreams and optimism.

His brightly coloured paintings depict scenes filled with balloons, people and patterns. “The balloons are not just masks of optimism or celebration, they also represent the composed pressure under which most of us are. A balloon can pop any moment, yet it represents happiness and celebration. That balloon is me staying calm under difficult circumstances while chasing the dream of a bright future”.

The exhibition concludes on 16 December 2022.