Anthony Bumhira, also known as Anthony B, is a young Zim artist with incredible talent. Bumhira primarily paints everyday scenes of urban life in Harare. He has taken the traditional style of Zim painting and made it his own with a decidedly contemporary use of perspective, brush stroke and palette knife work.
Born in 1985 in Zimbabwe, he attended schools within and around Harare. In 2003, Anthony enrolled with the National Gallery’s Arts School, the B.A.T. Visual Arts Studios, for a two year course. In 2005, he was honored with a third year honors class. That same year he was selected to be an artist-in-residence at the same institution for another two years. Finally, in 2008 he was invited to have a solo exhibition which was his first one man show at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.
Bumhira had also collaborated with sculptor Gideon Gono on a mixed media piece for Artsense 2006 at the National Gallery, focusing on the themes of inclusiveness, power and uplifting messages through images. Artsense attempts to reveal through art the current social and cultural climate in Zimbabwe.
Anthony is a semi-abstract painter. He enjoys working on a large scale and most of his finished work is the result of sketches which he makes whenever and wherever he gets an idea for a painting. Mostly using bright yellows and bright reds; he tends to concentrate on space and light. Anthony B. has said that “nothing is more satisfying in my life than making a painting.”
Bumhira’s work is already in private collections and can be seen at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe and Amazwi Contemporary Art in Saugatuck, Michigan.
Solo Exhibitions
Modern View; National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare; 2008
Blessings of Summer; Art Café, Avondale, Harare; 2009
Red Canvas; Ambassador Hotel, Harare; 2009
Celebrating Landscape; Art Café, Avondale, Harare; 2010