Artist Bio
Nyasha Mabika was born on July 2, 1974 in Mutare Manicaland Province, in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe. He was the 4th born in a family of 6 children. Nyasha attended both primary and secondary school in Bvumba, a beautiful mountainous region, near the Mozambique border.
When Nyasha completed high school in 1991 he began visiting local sculpting co-operatives and assisting sculptors with sanding and polishing their sculptures. Having decided stone sculpting was a career he wished to pursue, Nyasha moved to St. Mary's in Chitungwiza to begin a formal apprenticeship with his late cousin Winston Magura. Winston taught Nyasha and they worked together from 1994 to 1996.
In 1996, Nyasha had completed his apprenticeship and was looking for new challenges. He joined a group of other artists and founded an arts co-operative, the Chitungwiza Arts Centre, where he remained an active member until 2016. He now works from his home studio in Epworth. Nyasha goes to the mine himself to select stone, which is his first source of information. He enjoys working with hard stones such as Leopard Rock, Springstone and Opal.
Attracted to wildlife, Nyasha says that is what most often he sees in the raw stone. Nyasha enjoys sculpting hippos and abstract pieces. His sculptures have sold to galleries and collectors from Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Canada.
ZimArt started to represent Nyasha in Canada in 2017.