Farai Mapenda, the third and final artist in our inaugural Zambia-based artist-in-residence cohort at the Lusaka Contemporary Art Centre, shared her Artistic Practice on Saturday, November 30, 2024. Her residency, which ran from November 16 to November 30, 2024, showcased her exploration of being human.

Farai is a 19-year-old artist with a lifelong passion for creativity, her passion for art grew from the moment she could hold a pencil, having been immersed in the world of art, and exploring a wide range of mediums and techniques. Her work includes lino printing, landscapes, expressionism, oil painting, model making, and more In hopes of becoming a multidisciplinary artist. She is not only dedicated to visual arts but also enjoys writing poetry, and novels, and engaging with both classic and contemporary literature. Her creative pursuits extend to photography, film, and music.

Farai´s practice and philosophy are deeply rooted in exploring the depths of expressionism and challenging the boundaries of culture and the mind. Aiming to provoke introspection and de-stigmatize the complex emotions youth often experience in the hope to act as a catalyst to the first steps of healing; acceptance and surrender. Above all, she strives to foster a sense of belonging and understanding within the creative community.

The Human Condition a broad term whose origin is found in ancient texts that encompasses all aspects of human life, including the positive and negative aspects of being human such as: personality traits, emotions, reasoning, death, conflict, birth, growth, gender, philosophies and more. It is often analyzed from many perspectives, including art, biology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religion. In art it explores the universal experiences and characteristics of humanity, depicting the various human conditions through observations, gestures, physicality and representation.

Farai´s focus is centered on the intersection between expressionism and contemporary art Expressionism’s emotional intensity and focus on subjective experience lays the foundation for much of the freedom and experimentation seen in contemporary art today. Expressionism is a specific historical movement centered on conveying emotion and subjective experience through distorted forms, while Contemporary Art represents the diverse and ever-evolving landscape of art practices happening today, often driven by conceptual ideas and social commentary.