Tafadzwa Tega

Born in 1985 in Tega Harare, Zimbabwe, Tafadzwa Tega grsew up in an artistic family, and so his creative inclinations were encouraged from a young age.

Tega exhibited at his first group show at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and moved shortly after this to Cape Town, South Africa. Tega has developed a signature style of colourful representational portraiture that depicts the everyday lives of black subjects, and probes themes of culture, religion, tradition and migration and displacement.

He writes: “There are people I know from back home who moved to South Africa. When I see them here, looking for jobs, or a doctor working in a restaurant because they’re looking to make ends meet, I’m so touched. Those people, I know them and I’m so close to them. They are the people I portray in my paintings”. Tega has had four solo exhibitions and has partaken in numerous group sho.

His work can be found in several institutional and private collections, including The Leridon Collection, Spier, Nando’s and the University of Cape Town (UCT). Tega’s work has been presented several times at the FNB Joburg (2018-2020) and Cape Town Investec art fairs (2020) and was presented at the 2021 ART X Lagos art fair. In 2021, Tafadzwa Tega presented “Harare Dream” at Foreign Agent, his first solo exhibition at the gallery.