PHILLIP KOTOKWA

sculptor in stone

Zimbabwe

Phillip Kotokwa was born in 1972 and became an adult in the thriving city of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

Kotokwa’s aptitude for sculpting was evident from his early childhood.  When he left school, he did what most urban young men would do in his position and got a job in an office.  However by the time he was 22, feeling the pull of his talent and witnessing the example of his two older half-brothers, Cosmos and Gift Muchenje, themselves both artists, he decided to forgo the easier road and to become a full-time sculptor.

Before long it became evident that Kotokwa was especially skilled and, moreover,  passionate about making his work.  He became the protégé of the well-regarded Zimbabwean sculptor, the late Crispen Chakanyuka.  Chakanyuka tutored him not only in technical matters such as selecting, purchasing and working with suitable stone from local quarries and mines: on their travels he taught him to explore with gravity their ancient cultural and spiritual heritage that lay beyond the limitations of city life. 

In his book, My Life in Stone Sculpture in Zimbabwe and Beyond” (Harare, 2004), Kotokwa writes: “Crispen Chakanyuka worked with the first sculptor Joram Mariga in Nyanga and he understood what Mariga was trying to achieve in his sculpture, the idea of representing the figures of folklore and myth in some kind of concrete way. . .   [We] would travel together, he was my ‘road map’ in Guruve, and it was through him that I learned the traditional ways of my culture. . .  He opened my eyes to the deeper meanings of the rock art [in the Matopos Hills], what those strange lines and circles meant, what the strange animals in silhouettes meant. . .  He knew his stones and where to find his stones like no other sculptor, he knew his culture, his traditions, inside and out, he knew the dirt highways and byways of Guruve, and he knew Zvirimudombo. . .  There was no-one who praised him as he should have been praised, as a sculptor who wove many stories in his stones, so many stories in one stone, a sculptor who prized out of his stones amazing figures, half spirit, half animal. . .  What Crispen Chakanyuka did for me was teach me where I came from, rather than what I have become.”

Kotokwa opened himself to his people’s past and expressed himself in stone.  He set off on this hard road just when Zimbabwe as a whole embarked on sorely troubled political times. Against the odds Kotokwa has established for himself an international reputation.  Right now he is trying to raise funds so that he can take up the place that has been offered to him by University College School for the Creative Arts at Canterbury to study for a first degree.

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Current Exhibition

Sculptor in residence at

Denbies Wine Estate, London Road, Dorking, Surrey, UK

Tel: 01306 876616

www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk

Contact the artist - email:   pkotokwa@yahoo.com

Permanent or continuing exhibitions

- National Gallery of Zimbabwe

- Chapungu Sculpture Park (Previously near Harare, Zimbabwe. Contact address:  chapungu@mweb.co.zw)

- Similitudes Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe

- Rubwerureva Attractions (Bindura), Zimbabwe

Exhibitions

2008

Sculptor in residence at Denbies Wine Estate, Dorking, Surrey, UK

2007

Modern Artists Gallery, Whitchurch, Berkshire, UK

Garden Gallery, Broughton, Hampshire, UK

2006

Denbies, Dorking, Surrey, UK

2005

Tsant Galerie, Nuth, Netherlands

2004

African Millennium Foundation annual exhibition “In Praise of Women”

at the Oxo Gallery, London, and on tour at galleries in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and the USA.

2003

Guest artist at Tsant Galerie, Nuth, Netherlands

2002

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa

2001

Group exhibitions in Germany, Netherlands, South Africa

Private collections

in Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and USA.

Materials

Kotokwa works in hard stone found only in this part of the world, such as leopard stone and serpentine stone.

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c.14Aug08