Description
Moisés Ernesto Matsinhe Mafuiane has been using the name Butcheca to express himself artistically since the early 1990s: born in 1978 in Maputo, Mozambique, he displayed an early inclination to look critically and aesthetically at the world, and has thus persevered in his career as a self-taught artist. In 1997 he joined "Núcleo de Arte" (Art Centre), located in his hometown of Maputo. This space served as a hub for creation, discussion, exhibits, and advocacy for social causes.
His work spans across painting, sculpture, and drawing, and he also works as a teacher at the French School - Lycée Gustave Eiffel in Maputo, focusing on the arts. In sculpture, he is a gatherer par excellence, collecting everything that allows him to translate into the final work what he anticipates in his mind in those moments when he says that 'even without sound, we dance alone'; in painting, he comes across as the one who portrays diffusely and phantasmagorically, in dilemma-compositions of perception itself. His stroke is firm and strong, whether when creating his works or in other moments, as if it were crossed by powerful earthquakes, a quality that becomes evident in what is seen.
Works
2022, Maputo
acrylic and charcoal on canvas 108 x 148,5 cm
Butcheca is a painter and sculptor of movement(s), junctions and mixtures, graft(s) - Nyau confirms this with the intense vibration of the lines. Nyau is the "great dance" practised by various ethnic groups in the border regions of Mozambique, Malawi, and Zambia.
2022, Maputo
oil, acrylic and charcoal on canvas 200 x 139,5 cm
"Régulo" refers to a small or young king, so in "O Encontro dos Régulos" (Encounter of Kings) Butcheca certainly depicts a condition of his home country - Mozambique. However, he does so from a nerve centre made up of active lines, the driving design, and by incorporating his totem animal - the bull.
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Biography
1978 - Maputo, Mozambique
Visual Artist – Painting, Drawing and Sculpture
He claims to be self-taught and started his career in the early 1990s. At the same time, he has been teaching art at the French School in Maputo (Lycée Gustave Eiffel), a position he has held since 2015.
In 2020, he was the winner, ex aequo, of the "Melhor Futuro" (Best Future) Award in the Crescente Collection competition by the Kulungwana Gallery. He won 2nd prize at the 13th edition of the TDM Biennial 2015 - "Artes Plásticas Contemporâneas-Possibilidades e Contribuições" (Contemporary Visual Arts - Possibilities and Contributions).
In 1997, he joined "Núcleo de Arte de Maputo" (Maputo Art Centre), where he has exhibited regularly. In 2002, he held his first solo exhibition titled "A Menina de Verde" (The Girl in Green) at the Maputo Fortress. Between 2003 and 2004, he exhibited in Portugal, at the Jorge Vieira Museum in Beja, as part of the XIII Galeria Aberta collective exhibition. He returned to solo exhibitions in Maputo in 2009, when he presented "Chauffeur - O Motorista de Butcheca" (Chauffer - Butcheca's Driver) at the Franco-Mozambican Cultural Centre (CCFM), a venue where his work would be repeatedly showcased in the future: in 2011, with "Ruínas do Passado" (Ruins of the Past), in a collective exhibition; in 2012, when he participated in an artistic residency at ENAV - National School of Visual Arts, as part of the project "ZIMOKAD - Zimbabwe Mozambique Cultural Art Dialogue", which led to an exhibition at the CCFM; in 2014, on two occasions in collective exhibitions; in 2015, again with a solo exhibition; in 2016, with PUNKADA, and in 2017, with "Mar Nosso" (Our Sea), in a collective exhibition. "Chauffeur - O Motorista de Butcheca" was on display in Porto, at the Geraldes da Silva Gallery, in 2010, the year in which he also held an exhibition in Lisbon at Art in Park/Spazio Dual by IMV. Since 2014, he has been participating in the exhibitions of the "Crescente Collection" held at the Kulungwana Gallery, in Maputo. In 2018, he also held a solo exhibition titled "Traços" (Strokes) at the same gallery. In 2020, he was present at JustMad in Madrid with the Kulungwana Gallery. That same year, with Arte D' Gema, he displayed his work at ARCOlisboa. He was present again in 2021, putting Africa in the limelight once more. He has also displayed his work in Portugal on several occasions: in Estoril, in 2013, with other "Artists from Portuguese-Speaking Countries"; in the same year, at the Natural History Museum, also in a collective exhibition; in Ericeira, in 2017, as part of the "Em Movimento" (In Motion) exhibition, with works from the Wolfgang Hahn Collection; at "Drawing Room Lisboa", organised at the National Society of Fine Arts, in 2019, and with the Kulungwana Gallery.
We should also highlight the residency and associated collective exhibition held at the Nafasi Art Space in Tanzania in 2019; the participation in the AKKA Project Dubai-Venice, included in the "African Identities" exhibition in 2022 and, in the same year, his solo exhibition "A Dança das Sombras" (The Dance of Shadows), held in Maputo at Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center.
In 2013, he represented Mozambique at the "Mozambique - Angola Cultural Week", with an exhibition at the Association of Angolan Writers in Luanda.
He visited the Dak'Art 2014 Contemporary Art Biennial as part of the Goethe Institut's "Moving Africa" programme. That same year he was guest artist at the Sukiyaki Meets the World Festival in Nanto City, Toyama, Japan: he directed a workshop on the construction of giant puppets and held a solo exhibition titled "Tchotcholosa".
He is the author of the "Mural em Homenagem aos Ex-Presos Políticos" (Mural in Honour of Former Political Prisoners) at the Mabalane Penitentiary in Gaza province, Mozambique, dated 2016.
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2022, Maputo
acrylic and charcoal on canvas 108 x 148,5 cm