Gabriel Tendai Choto 'Kumba'

Gabriel Tendai Choto . Kumba

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”
Marcus Garvey

Anima Mundi are delighted to present
‘Kumba’ by Gabriel Tendai Choto.
‘Kumba’ (the Shona word for ‘home’) is a
collection of works, made leading up to
the birth of his first daughter, exploring
personal diaspora and identity.
Combining the twin disciplines of
printmaking and painting, primarily
in oil on paper, through his singular
technique, Choto seeks new pathways
into the painted image by taking cues
from the surface quality produced by
the printmaking process. His evolving,
experimental practice involves layering
painted areas of naturalism over the
delicate compositional architecture of
etching, resulting in paintings where
physical presence and absence imply a
metaphoric liminal state.
Extraordinarily sensitive and intimate,
these images depict varied moments of
contemplation and self examination. To aid
navigation they could perhaps be divided
in to three simplified sections. The first,
a series of works derived from old family
photographs, piece together ephemeral
snippets of nostalgia where family and
friendship provide a firm rootedness. The
second, a series of self portraits, where
through constructed situations the artist
explores, examines and enforces his own
broadening identity. The third group
of works which depict images of
people currently living in Africa, in
circumstances very different to those
that Choto now finds himself in. When
combined, each chapter illustrates a
profoundly moving, cultural straddling
where one is aware of the duel states of
connection and separation peculiar to the
diasporic condition.
Choto was born in 1995 in Harare,
Zimbabwe and moved to England when
he was 5 years old. He was raised by
his mother in Bradford, Yorkshire and
currently lives and works in London,
England. After completing his Diploma in
Art and Design at Leeds Arts University
(formerly Leeds College of Art) in 2012,
Choto gained a BAFA in Drawing from
Camberwell College of Art (UAL), London,
in 2014 and more recently completed an
MFA at Central St Martins, London, UK.
Selected group exhibitions include FBA
Futures, Mall Galleries, London, UK (2018);
Flock, GX Gallery, London, UK (2017);
Blxckout Revolution: The Exhibition, 198
Gallery, London, UK (2017); BAME, Hotel
Elephant Gallery, London, UK (2016); and
Long Live the New Flesh, Tower Gallery,
London, UK (2015). In 2018, Choto was
selected for the Clyde & Co Art Award.
‘Kumba’ is Choto’s first solo exhibition at
Anima Mundi.
2

Rebeccaca
oil paint and etching on paper, 225 x 150 mm
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Rebecca ca
oil paint and etching on paper, 751 x 465 mm
5

Westernised Re-Birth
oil paint and etching on paper, 594 x 841 mm
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Totem & I
oil paint, gold leaf and etching on paper, 594 x 841 mm
9

In A Quiet Place
oil paint and etching on paper, 465 x 741 mm
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Kuzorora
oil paint and etching on paper, 594 x 841 mm
13

Kutamba Mumvura
oil paint and etching on paper, 226 x 307 mm
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Tranquility
oil paint and etching on paper, 240 x 305 mm
15

Kumunda
oil paint and etching on paper, 305 x 245 mm
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Ivie
oil paint, gold leaf and etching on paper, 485 x 305 mm
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Labourer
oil paint and etching on paper, 240 x 300 mm
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Child Labourer
oil paint and etching on paper, 240 x 300 mm
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No Congo, No Phone
oil paint and etching on paper, 240 x 300 mm
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Abafana Abathathu Abancane
oil paint and etching on paper, 710 x 483 mm
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“Sometimes we feel we straddle two cultures; at other times, that we fall between two stools.”
Salman Rushdie, ‘Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991’

Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Gabriel Tendai Choto ‘Kumba’
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