Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti Barnabas Ticha Muvhuti is a Postdoctoral candidate in Art History at Rhodes University with the NRF/DST SARChI Chair Geopolitics and the Arts of Africa and Global Souths research programme. His PhD thesis interrogated the relative invisibility of Job Kekana, Sam Songo, Cornelius Manguma, Lazarus Khumalo, Joram Mariga, and John Hlatywayo in the dominant discourse of the development of modern art in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe. Mariga initiated the stone sculpture movement. Kekana founded the Kekana School of Art and Craft. Recognising that canons are always evolving and shifting, and without necessarily discrediting the work of the missionaries and expatriates who set up the pioneering art schools, his research attempts to expand the canon by arguing and advocating for the inclusion of the critiqued overlooked six Black artist-teachers. Muvhuti's PhD thesis was titled  ' Revisionist Narratives: Locating Six Black Artist-teachers onto the Map of Twentieth-Century Modern Art in Zimbabwe'.

Muvhuti is also interested in tracing the artistic lineages which emerged out of the Kekana School of Art and Craft, and the Cyrene Workshop. He also researches the work of contemporary artists from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. He has a Master of Philosophy in Ancient Cultures from Stellenbosch University, a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Curatorship Studies from the University of Cape Town, and a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Archaeology from Midlands State University. He has worked as a gallery assistant at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town, as a research assistant and project manager at the Centre for Curating the Archive (UCT), and as a research assistant at the Zeitz MOCAA Museum, researching for the When We See Us exhibition. He is also part of the Refugees in Towns research team at Tufts University.

Last Modified: Wed, 29 Nov 2023 10:35:56 SAST