Acerca de

Nyora (n) - temporary or permanent body and facial marks, applied for aesthetic, warfare, social, medical and spiritual reasons.

 

Nyora (v) - to mark, to write, to paint, to caress.

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We have always made marks on our surroundings and our faces and bodies. Some intentional, playful and/or ritualistic. Scarification, make-up, tattoos, cranial shaping, lip plating, teeth filing and so much more. Other marks appear as a tally of a life lived.  Our inherited genetics, wrinkles, laugh lines, immunisation injection scars and scraped knees from being chased by neighbourhood dogs.

 

The body has always been an archive and altar and the portraiture here celebrates our diverse facial and ornamental aesthetics as Afro-descendant people. Each mwana wevhu carries marks that speak to identity, lineage, space and place in time. Some marks whisper individuality. Others announce belonging. Some prepare the body for battle, for love,  celebrate birth, transition, or welcome death. 

 

The work extends beyond portraiture into Afrikan cosmology and critique. Deities such as |Kaggen and Doondari appear alongside reflections on land dispossession, coloniality, the cyclical nature of life and death and questions on what awaits us beyond this moment. My work is in dialogue here with continental art making through the ages. Usually I work in calligraphy with Afrikan soils as pigment, but recently I have been exploring other mark-making systems from across time. Witnessing and continuing in the traditions of rock painting with clays, mask-making, copper alloy casting, ceramics, textile printing, wood charring and carving. 

 

¡Nyora! are memory, action and aspiration. Tell our stories!

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Pfungwa nebasa raKasvikiro nevana vevhu, vapenyu nevakashaya Tapiwa wekwaGuzha, Nyamasvisva, wakabarwa 1986 

Solo Exhibition | March 7 - June 1, 2026 | Cape Town 

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