Percy Manyonga

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Percy Manyonga was born in Goromonzi, Mashonaland east in Zimbabwe in 1971. He spent three years at the BAT Visual Art Studios studying fine art, auspices of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and started attending fine art workshops in 1996. He has exhibited extensively locally and abroad in countries such as Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom to name a few. In 2000 he was presented with the Cyril Rogers Award of Distinction. His work resides in private collections in Spain, Canada, Australia, Austria, UK, Italy, Germany, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Manyonga draws inspiration from his rural upbringing as a cattle herder. His art work also serves as a visual narrative about African culture, and the role that animals play in African culture. His artworks depict how he has lived and what he values. Manyonga is an artist whose thoughts are profound and the meaning behind his works tends to reflect his introspective thought processes. His artwork portrays a capacity to reinvent line, structure, composition and faultlessness as he is the architect of the artworks that he creates.

The images and subjects lead to the motive and prods the conscious mind with new possibilities. Art, of course, is about seeing but Manyonga’s artworks show us that it is not always about representing the world as it exists; sometimes art can be used as a tool for recreating and imagining new ideas, it can allow us to see with more than our eyes.