Nkhuwemi KUMWENDA

Nkhuwemi Kumwenda blends the use of digital and traditional illustration in creating her body of work. Kumwenda creates her paintings digitally and publishes them as prints. She leaned into the traditional style of working by making her own sketchbooks by hand which acted as diaries that she filled throughout the year.

Her body of work is titled I Exist As a Whole.

I considered myself as having a face, hands, arms, and all that system of members composed of bones and flesh as seen in a corpse which I designated by the name of body - René Descartes (1596–1650).

Her body of work revolves around the human figure, and the omission of information and the use of colour to communicate emotions. The body of work Kumwenda created is built on self reflection and delving into her true self as a person and as an artist. Kumwenda believes that in order to make work that is relatable to a viewer, she must first make work that relates to herself.

The paintings revolve around the primary colour palette of red, yellow and blue. Kumwenda picked these colours as they have strong connections to expressing emotions. She omitted the parts of the human figure that did not play strongly to communicate the emotion she was trying to convey.