Charles Nkomo

Charles Nkomo, born in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe in 1974, is a Zimbabwean abstract expressionist artist. After leaving school in 1993 he studied at the Mzilikaze Craft Centre in Bulawayo, where he specialized in fine art. Thereafter he became a resident artist at the National gallery in Bulawayo. Nkomo enjoys painting typical African township scenes, landscapes with houses and buildings, and rural African women in the fields with many of them walking on their way to particular destinations, as is typical in their everyday lives. To this, Nkomo always adds his unique and special blend of lyrically colored abstractions which is typical and depictive of his style in his general body of work.

As his work has progressed over the years one sees that heightened colors and more prominent and elegant lines of abstraction have begun to creep into his more figurative works, although the coincidence of figures and abstractions still continue well into all his present-day works. Nkomo portrays the human figure with a neo-expressionist style and turns to his heritage for subject matter and inspiration which comprises his native subjects and indigenous people. Nkomo’s painting has within it a certain power which is expressed through simplicity and local charm.

The hallmark of Nkomo’s style is aggressive brushwork and strategically placed high-key colors on his favorite medium: oils or acrylic on canvas. Nkomo’s canvasses appear effortlessly executed but hide a carefully planned process. His finished works take on a classic color field painting, illustrated in his rendering of townships scenes, African ladies and landscapes – all are typical scenes populated by colloquial African groups of the particular area.

Nkomo is fast achieving international stature as an artist and his paintings are presently hanging in many corporate offices and private residences worldwide, as far afield as Europe and the USA. He is poised to become a major figure in modern, contemporary and abstract African art and his restless vision in the often untamed part of the world is sure to interest and attract visitors to future exhibitions the he embarks upon. Nkomo has continuously participated in joint exhibitions and has also been commissioned to paint astounding murals for numerous Zimbabwean organizations and corporations.