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Billy Zangewa

Billie Zangewa, "soldier-of-love", silk collage

BILLY ZANGEWA b 1973, Malawi

Zangewa, of Malawian and South African descent, is definitely one of the defining artists of the contemporary African art world.

Her youth was spent travelling and living in many countries in Africa thanks to her engineer father.

Ma Vie en Rose

She majored in print-making at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, SA but being born to a mother who worked with textiles, she found it natural to turn to using silk as her primary medium for her art. While enjoying its tactile smoothness to work with, it also allowed her freedom of movement, ease of transport and less mess in order to create her unique tapestries.

In 2018 she won the FNB Joburg Artfair's special 'featured artist' spot which allowed her work to be presented throughout the world in various shows and exhibitions.

Her initial work featured cityscapes and urban scenes but her later work turned to a more personal note, an intimate language of expression reflecting her daily life.

A Temporary Reprieve

She works primarily with raw silk offcuts. Her tapestries allow us to think carefully about domestic and social issues. They are quietly confrontational and seem to connect simply but deeply to a wide audience.

In her most recent work there has been a departure from her figurative compositions to a ponderance of the human condition and the interconnectivity of all things.