In Focus | Selected works on paper: Virginia Chihota

Tiwani Contemporary is delighted to inaugurate its 2026 London programme with group and solo presentations across the gallery’s spaces at 24 Cork Street. 

 

Together, these presentations trace how figuration becomes a powerful tool for navigating inner and collective worlds. Across new and recent works, personal mythologies, spiritual archetypes, and embodied histories converge, revealing how artists use visual storytelling to shape identity, negotiate belonging, and reimagine the self in relation to others.

 

In the viewing room, our In Focus presentation features four large-scale unique serigraphs on paper by Virginia Chihota created between 2015 and 2016 across Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Montenegro. Chihota charts her inner life as a shifting, symbolic landscape marked by experiences, self-questioning, vulnerability, and moments of quiet transformation, reflecting states of introspection and emotional recalibration. Ndiri pano ndisina chekuita newe (Here I am not for you) (2015) was made in Zimbabwe living with her extended family, during a period of separation from her partner who had to return to Tunisia. Ndopupura ndisina chandakabatai (Testimony with empty hands) (2015), is a declaration to say, “I am here for you,” and is about self-awareness and understanding oneself. Kuzvirwisa (Fighting self) (2016) and Ndiani achamira neni muimba yekugadzira chikafu? (Who will stand with me in the house of making food?) (2016) were based on sketches that were conceived in Djerba, Tunisia and finalised in Montenegro. Fighting self is about searching for identity, and digging deep within to understand conflict, and self-relevance. Who will stand with me in the house of making food asks if the kitchen is only a place for making food, or a place of creativity, ideas and questioning.