Chikonzero "Chiko" Chazunguza (born 1967), is a Zimbabwean painter, printmaker, activist and educator. He was the head of the department of arts at

Harare Polytechnic Harare Polytechnic College, formerly Salisbury Polytechnic and commonly referred to as Harare Polytechnic, is a technical, public research university in Causeway, Harare. The university is known for its strength in science and engineering, and is ...

Life and career

Chazunguza was born in 1967 in

Harare Harare (; formerly Salisbury ) is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of 940 km2 (371 mi2) and a population of 2.12 million in the 2012 census and an estimated 3.12 million in its metropolitan ...

, the

capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...

, equivalent in territory to modern

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. In 1987 he won a scholarship to study in the Higher Institute of Arts "Nikolay Pavlovich" (now National Academy of Arts) in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, Bulgaria, where he got his master of fine arts degree. In Bulgaria, Chazunguza studied classic subjects like printmaking and painting and spent seven years in the country, witnessing the collapse of the authoritarian regime and the transition to democracy. In 1994, he returned to Zimbabwe and began trying to combine his European education with local Zimbabwean art. He has been active in many different fields, including teaching art for more than 15 years at various universities and colleges. He was the deputy director of the Zimbabwe Institute of Visual Arts and Head of the Department of Arts at

. Chazunguza participated as an adjudicator for the

National Gallery of Zimbabwe The National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) is a gallery in Harare, Zimbabwe, dedicated to the presentation and conservation of Zimbabwe's contemporary art and visual heritage. The original National Gallery of Rhodesia was designed and directed by ...

and the National Gallery of Namibia. He coordinated numerous seminars and festivals and is the art director of several short films. At the same time he was engaged in many public activities in Harare. In 2015, Chazunguza, along with Masimba Hwati and Gareth Nyandoro, represented Zimbabwe at the 56th International Art Exhibition of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. Chazunguza has won numerous awards and has exhibited in several solo exhibitions in Africa, Europe and North America.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chazunguza, Chikonzero 1967 births Living people Artists from Harare 20th-century Zimbabwean painters Zimbabwean activists