Troy Makaza

Biography

Troy Makaza Portrait, image credit to Rodney Badze/First floor gallery

...this medium [silicone] allows me to move between sculpture and painting and to disrupt categories set up by people who are not us, so in a way it is me asserting my right as an artist to determine how I am seen and not allow myself or my content to be categorised.

Born in 1994, in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he lives and actually works, Troy Makaza’s surreal works, woven with painted silicone cords, inhabit the space between painting and sculpture, creating a threadlike structure. His creations maintain diverse narratives, ranging from issues of a socio-political nature to more personal stories and visions, determined by the artist's experiences.

"The medium is very intimately connected to my work on a number of levels. First of all, it combines a traditional art medium with a novel one. This is something that I am really conscious of doing as a contemporary Zimbabwean artist – bridging tradition with contemporary practice. Secondly, this medium allows me to move between sculpture and painting and to disrupt categories set up by people who are not us, so in a way it is me asserting my right as an artist to determine how I am seen and not allow myself or my content to be categorised. My subject matter is equally fluid moving between abstraction and figuration because neither category is in fact pure and the formality of these definitions don’t make sense to me."

- Troy Makaza

Troy Makaza’s surreal works woven from painted silicone strings strange silicone works inhabit the space on either side of painting and sculpture. Threadlike spider webs of hair, accented with bands and braids of bright colour silicone, are part of Makaza’s broader examination of the fluid and in- flux relationships between the sexes in contemporary Zimbabwe. The twisted strands bound together build powerful metaphors for social and intimate spaces, where traditional roles are no longer assured and liberal attitudes don’t always belong.

While Makaza’s personal narratives for his work are ideologically passionate and focused, his approach is as always playful and fluid, giving audiences their own space to engage with the work in ways which are not prescribed. He borrows widely yet subtly both from popular visual culture, traditional symbolism and art history as a source of his colourful agglomerations, where colours and forms become the prime actors in the works.

Makaza has been active internationally for a number of years. Having been mentored by senior artists such as Wycliffe Mundopa, Moffat Takadiwa and Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude. While he trained like most of his peers at the National Gallery Visual Art studio in found object sculpture and rudiments of painting, he opted to invent his own medium, which spoke more closely to his culture as a young Hararean in the 21st century, as much in tune with to international hip hop hits as he is with traditional Zimbabwean lore. Through experimentation, Makaza came up with silicone infused with ink and paint, which he is able to mould, paint, weave and sculpt.

Exhibitions

Works

Untitled, 2023
Untitled, 2023
Delusions of decisions part 2, 2022
Pageantry of the daily bread part 3 , 2022
Untitled, 2022

Solo & Group Show

Troy Makaza CV
Born in 1994, in Harare, Zimbabwe.

EXHIBITIONS (Selection)
Solo show and group exhibition

2026

"Africa Universe", Manifesta, Lyon, France (upcoming)

2025

Leave the Door Open, Galerie Farah Fakhri, Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

Troy Makaza, Solo Show, Galerie Poggi, Paris, France

Zurich Art Week

HUNYANZVI (MASTERY), Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich, Switzerland

2024

Un Ciel Intérieur, Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, France

This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean Pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia, Italy

ARCOmadrid, Galerie Poggi, IFEMA Feria de Madrid, Spain;

2023

The Armony Show, Javis Center, New York, USA

La Première Pierre, Galerie Poggi, Paris, France

Untwisting the Fantasy, Galerie Poggi, Paris, FR;

2022

Troy Makaza. Instinct of great survivors, Primo Marella Gallery, Lugano, CH

Kufa izuva rimwe, First Floor Gallery Harare, ZW

Paris+by Art Basel, Galerie Poggi, Grand Palais Éphémère Paris, France

Le Fil du Temps, Manifesta, Lyon, France

2021

Africa Universe - Part II, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, IT

Troy Makaza. Dispatches from Zambesia, Art Basel, Miami Beach, US

Age of Displacement, First Floor Gallery Victoria Falls, ZW

Ecce Homo, Hôtel Puyricard d’Agar, Cavaillon, France; Frieze №9 Cork Street, Galerie Poggi, London, UK

Travels with Herodotus (Domenico de Chirico curator), Galleria Bianconi, Milan, Italy

Mirror Mirror! - South South Veza, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe.

2020

Level Mosi-oa-Tunya, First Floor Gallery, Victoria Falls

ARCOLisboa Online, First Floor Gallery Harare.

2019

Tomorrows/Today (art fair prize winner), Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa

Africa Universe. Chapter 2, Troy Makaza: Visceral Politics, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy

Welcome Home, Museum of Modern African Art al Maaden, Macaal, Marrakesh, Morocco

Kubatana – Contemporary African Art Survey, Kunstlaboratorium, Norway

2018

THE BLACK SPHINX II, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy

Next Level, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

‘Five Bhob’ – Zeitz MoCAA, Cape Town, South Africa

Right at the Equator, Depart Foundation, Los Angeles

Forever Neverland Solo, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

2017

Another Antipodes, PS Art Space, Fremantle, Australia

FNB Joburg Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South africa
AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
Young Now, Hazard Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Collaging The City, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Cape Town Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa
London Art Fair, First Floor Gallery Harare, London
Face The Magic, Loving | Monro, Los Angeles, USA

2016

AKAA Paris, First Floor Gallery Harare, Paris, France
FNB Joburg Art Fair, , First Floor Gallery Harare, Johannesburg, South Africa
I am because you are, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Bound Together solo, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
THAT Art Fair,First Floor Gallery Harare, Cape Town, South Africa

2015

But He's Got No Clothes On, Commune 1 Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

Harare No Limits, Harare International Festival of the Arts, 2015, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe
Kuyaruka - Age of Accountability, First Floor Gallery Harare, Harare, Zimbabwe

2014

Green Shoots, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

Young Artists, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

News