Artist Database

Nelly Guambe completed a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy at the University of South Africa, Johannesburg, in 2009. The following year she joined the Mozambican Artist Association, Nucleo de Arte, and began painting; she has since become a full-time artist. Guambe’s paintings explore and reflect upon women’s circumstances and emotions. Finding her inspiration in women who she encounters in everyday life and work, as well as in herself. Her art responds to a powerful urge to document and record their often ignored state of being. With their hallmark penetrating eyes, Guambe’s portraits frequently leave the viewer with questions rather than answers, shedding light on a state of ambivalence in which many contemporary southern African women find themselves – amidst both opportunity and constraint.

Recent exhibitions and projects include the 2019 Investec Cape Town Art Fair (Guns and Rain Gallery); a 2018 Solo Exhibition, Olhares at the Portuguese Cultural Institute, Maputo; in 2018, 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair (Ed Cross Fine Art), London; and About Face group exhibition, Stevenson Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa. In 2019, Africa First sponsored the first EPI prize where Guambe was the 1st place artist.

Biography courtesy of Africa First.