Tanyaradzwa NGANDU

Tanyaradzwa Ngandu is a young artist who enjoys exploring bright colours and the way in which different mediums interact with each other. She is most passionate about oil painting and pencil drawings. Ngandu’s body of work is a series exploring human consciousness by depicting different people and the way in which they are perceived and how they see the world around them because everything that we perceive is filtered through our minds which as a result of different lived experiences.

Ngandu has incorporated colourful abstract compositions where paint has been allowed to flow without the artist’s brushwork, juxtaposed with hyper-real flowers and wood portrait silhouettes to depict different people. Her work aims to show the complex and often faulty relationship between reality and perception, freedom and restraint.

Her point of departure for the series began with the portrait of an old German lady named Kate who moved to South Africa in the 1970s with her family. She is a sociable person who is very generous and caring. She embodies for Ngandu the true meaning of Ubuntu. Even in her old age she still goes out of her way to show kindness to others, strangers included. Ngandu has painted her on a sunny day surrounded by plants because Kate’s favourite activity is gardening.

The warm light in some of the flowers and the bright colours of the paintings create an inviting atmosphere which speaks to the character of the people they symbolise. The bright colours and reoccurring flowers highlight the joy and positive aspects of people and how each individual is simultaneously delicate.