Oscillating between abstraction and figuration, Misheck Masamvu uses the act of painting to (re)think, (re)work and (re)imagine the world and our place within it. Rhythmic lines and layered fields of colour have become a prominent language for Masamvu to explore structures of power and how history comes to bear on the contemporary moment, but also how one can adapt to a new way of interacting with the world. Where earlier paintings have grappled with creating the tools that could help to confront the histories of one’s past, providing a mode of existing within the present moment, Daybreak makes use of the transition and interplay between the past, the present and the future initiating a new way of being. For the artist, this renewed reality and perspective embraces history, acknowledging that everything that has been recorded can be understood as memory, recognising that every effect of memory influences how one interprets the world around them. As Masamvu says of his practice: “With my work, the canvas offers me a moment to live and try things out. To feel my pulse. To ask. To be scared, and deal with that fear. To be courageous and to find myself. To discover a way to heal... because a painting takes everything, and above all, it gives me the agency to be my own protagonist”.
