Charles Bhebe

Biography

“I have a strong interest in human interaction in urban environment- streetwalkers, touts, obscure characters, men and women inhabiting urban spaces. I call my paintings ‘urban narratives'.”

Charles Bhebe was born in Lupane, Zimbabwe and currently lives and works in Bulawayo. He studied fine art at Mzilikazi Art and Craft center .

His two-dimensional works explore the human figure as an individual and as part of a community, focusing on the issues of identity and belonging; spaces we occupy, the information we receive and share, who we associate with, our response to changes around us, be it by design or by natural causes.

Bhebe’s works explore the social beliefs inherent to the human need to belong, they recount decades of continuous physical and psychological evolution as a human condition motivated not by just the need to survive, but also the need to justify our existence in relation to our surroundings.

His works have been featured in galleries across Zimbabwe, National Art gallery of Zimbabwe and represented his country at the 57th Venice Biennale at the Zimbabwe Pavilion. Bhebe participated in numerous group exhibitions in Meerbusch, Germany, and at the Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town. He also embarked on large scale mural projects with the Farbfieber Artists association in Düsseldorf, Germany, where 10 large scale Murals were realized in collaboration with artists from Latin America and Europe.

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Works