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Lionel Tazvitya Mbayiwa

@baba_kupa

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https://www.christophermollerart.co.za/artists/lionelmbaywa

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One continent. 54 countries. One stage in London. 🌍✨

This week, @154artfair returns to Somerset House for its 14th London edition, running alongside Frieze. Founded in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 has grown into the leading international fair for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, now spanning London, Marrakech and New York.

We’re especially proud to see Zimbabwean-born, Cape Town-based artist Lionel Mbayiwa (@baba_kupa ) showing with @spierartstrust . His bold cubist animals carry the Shona folktales he grew up hearing around the fire. 🐐🐂🐦

Earlier this year, Dallas artists Reuben Cheatem, Ebony Lewis and Andrea Tosten visited Lionel in his Cape Town studio on our reverse excursion. Seeing his work now on one of the art world’s biggest stages is what cultural exchange is all about. 🤝🏾

In London for Frieze? Live in London? Go see it.
📍 Somerset House, Strand
🗓 Through Sunday 18 October

Swipe through for the full story ➡️

#154ArtFair #FriezeLondon #FriezeWeek #ContemporaryAfricanArt #AfricanArt taken in 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair by @baba_kupa

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2 days ago

In the studio with Lionel Mbayiwa.

Lionel brings his Shona folk tales to Somerset House this week. His animal figures carry stories of power, morality and the journey from Zimbabwe to South Africa.

See them in person at Booth S14, alongside Blessing Blaai and Mellaney Roberts, presented with Nando's. 1-54 London, Somerset House, 15–18 October.

Filmed for Creative Block: Making a Mark, celebrating 23 years of our Creative Block programme.

@baba_kupa @154artfair @nandosuk #154London by @baba_kupa

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4 days ago

It’s London Art Week, and as we prepare for the opening of 1:54 London, meet the artists we’re exhibiting with Nando’s this year!

Lionel Mbayiwa (1982) was born in Zimbabwe and now lives in Cape Town. Lionel draws on his Shona heritage and the stories of his childhood, using animals as symbols of power and morality. His works explore themes of immigration and identity.

Lionel has participated in multiple group exhibitions, art fairs and projects. Some include the ArtistLab mentorship programme hosted by Latitudes Online (2021). In 2026, he participated in the Investec Cape Town Art Fair with Christopher Moller Gallery and presented his museum exhibition Ndibatewo Ruwoko / Hold My Hand at the Schutz Fine Art Museum in Engelhartszell, Austria.

Come visit us at @154artfair , 15–18 October!

MURUDO MURUDO (IN THE NAME OF LOVE), 2026
ZAMU RANDAKAYANWA (THE BREAST I FEED FROM) II, 2026

@baba_kupa @154artfair @nandosuk #154London #SpierArtsTrust #southafricanartist🇿🇦 taken in Somerset House by @baba_kupa

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6 days ago

Open Book Festival and a chat with Zimbabwean artist Lionel, Cape Town. by @baba_kupa

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20 days ago

This is your last chance to visit Wild Things, our current ceramic group exhibition @SpierWineFarm.

Open daily until 24 August.

#ceramicArt #SpierArtTrust #visualLanguage taken in Spier Wine Farm, South Africa by @baba_kupa

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2 months ago

Red blue
Oil and acrylic on canvas
2026

Red and blue have carried powerful meanings across different cultures and histories. Red has often been associated with life, blood, sacrifice, danger, love, and struggle, while blue has been connected to the sky, water, spirituality, peace, and the unknown.
In Red Blue, I bring these two colours together as opposites that coexist. Red speaks to the intensity of human experience—the wounds, struggles, passion and memories we carry. Blue creates a space of reflection, spirituality and possibility.
The painting explores the tension between these two forces: the earthly and the spiritual, conflict and peace, memory and hope. Together, red and blue become a conversation about the complexity of human life and the histories we carry within us. by @baba_kupa

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2 months ago

When I sign an artwork it means I’m done , it’s been hectic but I pulled through 🕺🏻🕺🏻🕺🏻☄️☄️☄️#contemporaryart @embroidery_mag #artlovers by @baba_kupa

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3 months ago

'Echoes of Home' by Lionel Mbayiwa.

As the title work of our current group exhibition, 'Echoes of Home', Lionel Mbayiwa's distinctive visual language draws on echoes of Cubism and African modernism, where multiple perspectives unfold within a single composition.

Figures and spaces overlap and transform, creating a layered visual experience that invites viewers to slow down, look closer, and discover new meanings with every encounter.

Showing until 26 July 2026.

Oil and acrylic on canvas (2026) by @baba_kupa

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3 months ago

What do we pass on to the next generation?

Through his deeply personal exploration of fatherhood, Lionel Mbayiwa reflects on inheritance, responsibility and the legacy we choose to leave behind.

His works invite us to consider not only where we come from, but what will remain long after us.

See Mbayiwa's work in ‘Echoes of Home’, now showing at Christopher Moller Gallery until 24 July 2026. taken in Christopher Moller Gallery by @baba_kupa

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3 months ago

Family, Heritage and Identity!

'Echoes of Home' brings together three artists from across the African continent whose works explore these ideas through very different visual languages and lived experiences.

Mpho Feni, Lionel Mbayiwa and Olamide Ogunade each reflect on what it means to carry heritage, memory and personal history within an increasingly contemporary and interconnected world.

@mpho_feni
@baba_kupa
@olamideogunade by @baba_kupa

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Big brother was in the house. In Shona we say zvadzikamiswa, vasiya mumvuri.Thanks @hughmbayiwa and @chrisjdmoller @christophermoller_gallery #africanart #artcollector #cubisim #thedeanartcollection by @baba_kupa

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4 months ago

Kudzidza Hakupere — Learning Never Ends
We live and learn every day. Much of history has been written and taught according to the interests of those who recorded it, leaving many stories untold and many lessons absent from our classrooms. As a result, we are not always fully equipped to understand or shape our future.
To rewrite our own history, we must first visit the past.
“Kudzidza Hakupere / Learning Never Ends” is currently showing Christopher Moller Gallery until 02 July 2026. The African History Channel #africanhistory #africanartcollector by @baba_kupa

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4 months ago