Obert Jongwe Painting

About the exhibition

Between tradition and modernity – the painting of Obert Jongwe

With Obert Jongwe, the Bettendorffsche Galerie presents an artist whose work is shaped by an intense engagement with the tensions of our time. In his paintings, tradition meets modernity, rural roots meet urban influences, memory meets continual transformation.

Born in 1980 in Mount Darwin in northern Zimbabwe, Jongwe found his way to art early on through school assignments. What began as exploratory drawing soon grew into a deeply felt vocation. His early works are marked by luminous colour and a powerful formal language. Depicting scenes of everyday life in Zimbabwe and southern Africa, they quickly found their way into private collections.

The year 2013 marked a decisive turning point: after a year-long sabbatical, Jongwe returned with a broadened artistic approach. Since then he has devoted himself increasingly to the complex questions of identity, place and change. His compositions mirror a world in transition – shaped by the ambivalence between traditional, rural roots and an ever more Westernised present.

The unmistakable, scratched surface of his paintings is characteristic of his work. With almost instinctive assurance – at times even with his eyes closed – he applies these textures, lending his subjects a palpable energy, an aura of their own.

Since 2004 Jongwe's work has been shown in major galleries across the African continent, including the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Today his paintings form part of numerous collections of contemporary art.

A five-month journey through the United States in 2023 opened up new perspectives and left clear traces in his practice. The works that emerged from it, on view at the Bettendorffsche Galerie, are distinguished by a deepened narrative dimension and an expanded pictorial language.