INNOCENT NKURUNZIZA

Innocent Nkurunziza is one of the leading artists at the forefront of the growing Rwandan art scene. Founder of the Inema Art Center and the first Rwandan art collective, Nziza Art Initiative, he sees the artist as a catalyst for social change locally and within the world at large.

Nkurunziza works primarily with barkcloth — a natural and renewable material created primarily out of the bark from the Moraceae tree — which he processes into soft, malleable material similar to canvas. His large abstract paintings train the gaze of the viewer into meditative states that can produce elevated states of consciousness similar to “trataka” meditations. Nkurunziza interprets the artist’s role as bringing elevated consciousness onto the planet through beautiful works of art and operate on the subconscious of the viewer