Meet the artists
We are honoured to spotlight these artists who have partnered with Izwi (past and present) to bring unique perspectives, rich cultural narratives, and innovative techniques to our portfolio.
Each artist is carefully selected for their ability to push boundaries and challenge conventions, creating pieces that resonate deeply and inspire meaningful conversations. From emerging voices to established names, our artists represent a wide array of styles and mediums, reflecting the vibrant and dynamic contemporary African art scene. By working closely with these artists, we ensure that every project and exhibition curated by Izwi is not only a celebration of artistic excellence but also a powerful platform for showcasing the stories and visions of African creatives.
The artists
Bokani Tschidzu (Zimbabwe)
Bokani’s technique involves urgent, gestural movements, exploring and responding to colours as they interact on the canvas. She believes in the integrity, freedom and honesty of abstract painting. Bokani has developed a method over several years of creating rational patterns that lead the viewers’ eye across the paintings, reminiscent of the dancing African printed cloths of her childhood.
Bokani’s work is characterised by spontaneous, vibrant colour, fuelled by an exploration of themes and motifs engaging the viewer intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Painting has empowered her to move past the childhood loss of both parents to resolve questions of global female identity, black African heritage and belonging.
Bokani’s resilient, triumphant and optimistic attitude is conveyed by the powerful and vivid use of colour, structure and texture. Chiefly concerned with our response to the climate crisis, her paintings elicit a new response to nature. Bokani draws on Laudato Si, published in 2015, using a printing technique which carries over paint in patterns of relation to illustrate the idea of integral ecology. The details of the paintings are evocative of natural patterns, colours and textures, creating a visual poem to the concept of integral ecology which describes our patterns of connection to all life.
This tension between creative abandon, emotional expression and technical discipline elicit dynamic responses, creating works that are an on-going conversation between the artist and the viewer. Her digital works are infused with her colourful aesthetic and spiritual conversation, engaging with the powerful technology influences of our time; machine learning, computer visioning and artificial intelligence.
Bokani Tshidzu was born in Zimbabwe and moved to England as a teenager. Her work is blending an African sensibility with the traditions of conceptual western art. She studied Politics with Economics (2009) at the University of Bath, as well as a Masters in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London (2020) specialising in Computational Art. The key theme of her digital practice is journey, creating a narrative that takes viewers on an immersive experience.
She was co-founder of a sustainability software firm for six years and has worked in finance and politics. Following a spiritual journey on foot across the north of Spain, on the Ignatian Camino, Bokani made the commitment to working as an artist. She was discovered by BBC 1 for the show ‘The Big Painting Challenge’, and won the public vote in the first week.
She is living and working in Bow, in London’s East End.
Yasser Claud-Ennin (Nigeria)
Yasser Claud-Ennin is a self-taught Nigerian-Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist. Often
inspired by his wrestle with his multicultural heritage, his work brings together pieces of
different nationalities and cultures, creating multifaceted paintings on antique and vintage traditional textile fabrics.
Inspired by his community’s traditional crafts and textiles, he became drawn
to contemporary art and began experimenting with new techniques and styles.
Through his art, Yasser explores themes of identity, culture, and spirituality, inviting
viewers to reflect on their experiences and relationships with the world around them.
With each piece, Yasser seeks to challenge stereotypes and redefine Africa in the global
imagination. He believes in the power of art to spark dialogue and create positive change.
Today, Yasser is one of West Africa's most promising artists, with exhibitions and
collaborations across the region. His work can be found in public and private collections.
Nene Mahlangu (South Africa)
Nene Mahlangu (b.1992) is a visual artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
She uses her oeuvre as an affirmative escape and a reminder of the beauty,
divinity, and blessing of being a woman. In celebration of 25 years of democracy,
Mahlangu made history by being the youngest woman to design two coins for
South Africa, championing education and children’s rights.
The figures in Nene Mahlangu’s figurative drawings and paintings are a
storytelling medium expressing her urge to create emotionally safe
environments in her mind and through her work, that serve as a positive escape
to remind herself of the beauty, the divine, the blessing that is to be a woman. The
figures depict vulnerability, healing, confidence, wholeness, and a transcendent
sense of power. Her works in this series are evocative and thought-provoking,
reasserting the rhetoric of authority of the female voice in the everyday world.
Mahlangu’s work has featured in group exhibitions such as ECLIPSE in Paris,
ART the Hague Art Fair, Den Haag, Netherlands (2021), WomenInArts, French
Residence, Pretoria, South Africa (2021) Venice International Art Fair, Italy (2020)
SISQO NDOMBE AKISIEFUL known as "Lenoir" is a Congolese painter born in 1985 in
Kikwit, the main city of the Kwilu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Passionate about drawing since he was a child. After his primary and secondary studies, his
taste for drawing led him to integrate the Academy of Fine Arts of Kinshasa to train in the
know-how of arts in order to perfect his look and his practice where, after several years of
learning, Ndombe obtained his diploma of graduation in Plastic Arts.Touching several fields
of creation, Sisqo Ndombe then decided to devote himself full time to his passion: painting. “I
paint everything that touches the human being," he says.
In his works, Ndombe presents characters that captivate and hold the admirer's gaze. He
places this gaze at the heart of his artistic creation and his existential and social questioning.
Questioning and interpellating eyes that solicit and invite the viewer's gaze at the same time.
Then a dialectic and a trade is established, a game of back and forth on what the eyes of the
artist observe, perceive and seize in his societal environment.Through the glances, Ndombe
questions, reflects and makes think in a seductive impulse. The gaze in these works is that of
the creator, the artist, and at the same time that of the viewer who crosses the gaze of the
painted and rendered character.
Sisqo Ndombe (DRC)
Tamary Kudita (Zimbabwe)
Tamary Kudita is a multi-award-winning fine art photographer, scholar and visual
artist, exploring themes of cultural duality, African identity, trans generational
memory. Her work aims to portray a new literature which takes on the cultural
remaking of the self, contributing to new imaginings of African identities. She
graduated from Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, in 2017
with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Subsequently, she established herself in fine art
photography thus beginning her artistic career in Zimbabwe.
She is the first African to win the coveted title of the 2021 Open Photographer of The
Year from the Sony World Photography Awards. This was the award’s biggest prize
for an image from her series ‘African Victorian’. Other awards and accolades include
the J.M.D Manyika Fellow awarded by Harvard University (2023). The See Me, Art
Takes 2021 Runner Up Prize (2021), The Voices of African Women Journal Most
Inspiring Art Piece Award (2020). She has been shortlisted for The International
Contemporary African Photography Prize, (2021) and The Henrike Grohs Art Award
(2024). Recognized for her talent, the artist received an Honorable Mention in the 2023
International Photography Awards and was nominated for the prestigious James
Barnor Prize (2024).
Tamary’s work has been exhibited and auctioned by leading auction house ‘Aspire
Auctions’ in South Africa. Previous solo exhibitions have taken place at The Xposure
International photography awards, Sharjah UAE (2024), Art Basel Miami, Florida (2021-
2022) and PH Centre Gallery Cape town, South Africa (2018). Group shows include:
Investec Cape Town Art Fair (2024) Sony World Photography Awards, Willy-
Brandt- Haus, Berlin, Germany, (2022) IPE 163, The Royal Photographic Society, Bristol,
UK, (2022), Akka Project, Dubai Art Expo, Dubai, (2022) Shifting Narratives, The Melrose
Gallery, South Africa, (2022) Reframing History, Photo Vogue Festival, Milan, Italy,
(2021).
The artist has been featured on various international media outlets and publications
such as BBC News, CNN International, Forbes, Vogue Italia, National Public Radio
(USA). Her work graces prestigious permanent art collections like: The Art Fitchburg
Museum (Massachusetts), The Betsy Gallery (Florida), The Celebrity Edge Cruise Ship,
and Parish, the gripping new AMC productions tv series.
Rihanata Bigey (Burkina Faso)
Rihanata Bigey is a multidisciplinary artist, born in 1994 in Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso) and raised in France, she lives and works in London. Rihanata graduated in Fine Art from the École des Beaux-Arts de Nantes (France) in 2017 and recently obtained a Master of Fine Art from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2023.
Her work is in private collections and has been shown in numerous group exhibitions in London, collaborated with Tate Collective on a printmaking film and has been awarded the Cass Art Prize and the Graduate Tension Fine Art Prize.
Rihanata's work emerges from an in-depth material investigation of symbolism and image-making; her practice not only draws on cultural heritage, memory and the ghostly aspects of cultural loss but also celebrates the representation of black women in all their diversity.
Natasha Kudita (Zimbabwe)
Natasha Kudita is a multi-disciplinary visual artist born in 1999 in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pretoria where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art. Throughout her time at university, she participated in several group exhibitions leading up to her final undergraduate exhibition ‘The 4TH Wall’ in which she explored post-colonial narratives and hybrid identity formation. After majoring in new media, conceptual photography and digital picture-making she developed an affinity for contemporary abstract art which subsequently led to the creation of her business – FABT (Fine Art by Tash). She recently participated in a joint-exhibition in Harare titled ‘Roots & Routes’ alongside her sister – Tamary Kudita, and this show launched the official opening of Pikicha Gallery a space built by creatives for creatives. The artist maintains an active studio practice in Zimbabwe and has been featured in local media outlets such as ARTHarare, The Herald, NewsDay Zimbabwe, Harare magazine and Samora Central.Her work is in private collections and has been shown in numerous group exhibitions in London, collaborated with Tate Collective on a printmaking film and has been awarded the Cass Art Prize and the Graduate Tension Fine Art Prize.
Rihanata's work emerges from an in-depth material investigation of symbolism and image-making; her practice not only draws on cultural heritage, memory and the ghostly aspects of cultural loss but also celebrates the representation of black women in all their diversity.
Nthabiseng Boledi Kekana (South Africa)
Nthabiseng Kekana is an artist born (1999) in Johannesburg and raised in Alexandra.
She is currently living and practicing in Alexandra.
Nthabiseng started drawing in her early primary school years and later went to the
National school of the Arts, where she majored in Three Dimensional Design. After
graduating from NSA she entered the LISOF (fashion Design Institute) #MyFashionCareer bursary competition and came first runner up, she ended up studying for a higher certificate. She later applied to study Digital Media in Design at the University of Johannesburg and currently holds a degree in Digital Media in Design (Multimedia).
After obtaining her degree she began her journey as a full-time artist. She grounds
her work in Spirituality and uses a harmonic range of mediums from acrylic,
charcoal, pastels, fineline, natural fibres, and more to express the fluidity of creation
and to futher explore the expression of God’s consciousness as an extension via our
existence. Her work has been exhibited In France and currently is in possession of
major collectors all of the world in primarily London and the United States of
America. She was one of the four shortlisted finalists for the 2021 Cassirer Welz
Award by Bag Factory Artists’ Studios, in partnership with Strauss & Co Fine Art
Auctioneers, and she was recently Top 6 for the Blessing Ngobeni Art Prize 2022.
Mudiwa Marasa (Zimbabwe)
Mudiwa Kimberley Marasa is a fine artist who grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe. She completed her O-levels at Lomagundi College in Chinhoyi then her A levels at Eaglesvale High school in Harare. She then completed a degree in Fine Art and Creative Design at Chinhoyi University of Technology where her final project was on Stop motion animation. She has always been in love with art, always a way to incorporate it in her everyday life. She has dabbled in many forms of art from traditional painting to digital art and animation, photography, videography and even poetry and song writing.
Mudiwa’s art style has evolved although the subject remains the same drawing female figure, in a way that tells the hard stories that make women beautiful by using colours that are vivid and sharp features. “A lot have told me that my art is dark and scary but I see my art as an experience and every stroke tells a story. ” For Mudiwa the process of creating is much more satisfactory than the end result because once she finishes the journey is over for her and she quickly loses interest in the finished piece. The artist that inspire Mudiwa are Chikonzero Chazunguza, Portia Zvavahera and Virginia Chihota.
Progress Nyandoro (Zimbabwe)
Progress Nyandoro born 20 December 1997 she is a Zimbabwean mixed media Artist
emerging from the National Gallery School of Visual Art and Design where she
graduated in year 2018. Since then, she has participated in a number of group
exhibitions where her unique style and medium of expression has attracted attention
all over the world.Her first participation in group exhibition was at Gallery Delta in
2017, on the exhibition titled Artist In the stream "17". In 2021 Nyandoro won the
second prize of the BREATHE IN Competition (Art of Health).
Progress specialises in mixed media with an affinity to fabric which she experiments
with extensively and applies effectively in her work. She is also passionate about
photography. And she also did a fellowship program of Africa no filter in 2021 - 2022
were she produced a series of mixed media art for her first solo exhibition titled
Mupfumi Ndini .