About

About Tafara Magumise

Tafara Magumise is a Zimbabwean-born visual artist based in New York. His debut submission to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe won first place, launching his practice in 2021. Working primarily in charcoal and pastels, he specializes in contemporary portraiture that functions as narrative intervention, combining classical techniques (chiaroscuro, tenebrism) with street photography and archival material. His work centers the stories of marginalized communities, particularly examining Black femininity and male vulnerability. His practice is iterative and unorthodox, he refuses conventional material protocols in favor of intuitive innovation.

Artist Statement

I am a storyteller working in portraiture. This realization crystallized when I submitted work to the SAYWHAT competition, a piece that juxtaposed a Black woman's face with newspaper clippings documenting gender-based violence and activism. When I won, it was confirmation that I could function as a vessel for narratives that have been silenced or overlooked.

My work interrogates masculinity, vulnerability, and the right to complexity. I draw men from my community, street vendors, athletes, friends, capturing them in poses inspired by Renaissance and Dutch Golden Era painting. These men are extraordinary precisely because they are ordinary. My role is to insist upon their full humanity: their capacity to be delicate, to grieve, to be tender without fracturing their masculine being.

I work deliberately with newspaper cutouts and textual fragments, embedding overlooked stories within portraiture. By doing so, the archive becomes a living, breathing context for the body before us. This creates a dialogue between individual humanity and institutional narrative.

My recent series Madzimambo/Malords positions Black men as sovereigns, wearing European regalia in Renaissance compositions, commanding gallery walls with the dignity they have always deserved. I want viewers to see not pathology or stereotype, but full human beings allowed the complexity of emotion without judgment or shame.

My practice spans charcoal, pastels, paint, and botanical drawing. I work iteratively, grounded in the belief that artistic voice emerges through repetition, ethical questioning, and willingness to evolve.