Artists

Zimbabwean born Virginia Chihota obtained a Certificate in Fine Art from BAT Visual Art Studios connected to the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2004, followed by a Diploma in Fine Art from Harare Polytechnic in 2006. Her family moved temporarily to Tripoli in Libya in 2012, but due to the political instability they were forced to relocate further. This period of turbulent displacement and relocation informs much of Chihota’s work.

Virginia Chihota creates deeply personal and introspective artworks which reflect her search for self in the midst of change and upheaval. Utilising a combination of drawing, painting and printmaking, and striking colour, she creates images that often depict the human form whilst exploring her personal relationships, her role as a wife and a mother and the issues of cultural isolation, dislocation, loneliness and belonging.

Chihota has participated in residencies at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in 2007 and Greatmore Studios in Cape Town in 2008. She has received a number of awards including the Prix Canson, Le Fonds Canson pour l'Art et le Papier in France in 2013, and she completed a commission for Opéra National de Paris, France in 2021. Chihota has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows in Africa and throughout Europe, including at the 55^th Venice Biennale and the Norval Foundation in Cape Town. Chihota’s works are represented in numerous private and prestigious public collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, France and the Tate Gallery in London, United Kingdom.

Virginia Chihota currently lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.